Cal State East Bay Hack Day to Focus on Disease and Drones
- April 20, 2017
Cal State East Bay students will use technology, computer programming and problem-solving skills to assemble and program drones to combat issues surrounding mosquito-borne diseases at the second annual CSUEB Hack Day.
The event will be held April 23 from 10 a.m. - 10p.m. in the “Cave” in the North Science building, coinciding with World Malaria Day April 25.
“Hack days started in the software development industry in order to bring people of diverse backgrounds together for collaborative problem-solving and have since been used successfully in a variety of industries and fields,” said Nazzy Pakpour, assistant professor of biological sciences. “This year’s event is designed to expose students to areas of technology and science that they might not otherwise encounter in their college education. For example, teaching biology students to program or teaching computer science majors about mosquito biology or project management.”
Students will be placed in teams of three to five people and the winning team will win a land-based drone.
“Given a problem to solve related to mosquito borne illness, they will be able to build a drone platform and sensors that they can use to solve it,” said James Tandon, assistant professor of computer engineering. “While simply stated here, there are thousands and thousands of different ways to attack the problem.”
Organizers say what's great about this event is that students experience solving a multidisciplinary problem in a way they don't get in the classroom.
“Nobody has ever taught them how to combat a mosquito-borne disease with a drone,” said Reza Akhavian, assistant professor of construction management. “They need to think out-of-the-box, manage a team project with time and resource constraints, deliver the best possible solution given what they have and, finally, impress the judges with how they present the outcome. This is project management, science and engineering in action.”
The event will begin with a series of 10-minute motivational "flash talks" to orient students in various subject areas, including drone programming, current mosquito control surveillance and strategies and issues surrounding aerial insecticides and transgenic mosquitoes. After the short presentations given by faculty and a representative from the company providing the drones, students will break out into groups to brainstorm and develop their prototype or "hack."
Academic and industry experts will rotate among the teams to provide feedback and technological assistance throughout the event.
Each group will be provided with either a flying or land-based drone to use as a tool in their hack solution. Flying drones will be in an enclosed, netted area, while land drones will be in a fenced area. The teams will use these arenas to test and present the hacks that they develop during the course of the day.
“I am personally excited about hack day because it gives our students a chance to take their knowledge and create something new and innovative,” Pakpour said. “At a hack day everyone is an expert and novice at the same time, and of course playing with drones is pretty freaking fun.”
to register for the event or obtain more information.