TU-based app technology innovations lead the way in USM competition
TU faculty and student honored for apps created to help during pandemic
July 10, 2020
Two Towson University teams have been honored by the University System of Maryland (USM) COVID Research & Innovation Task Force for developing innovative apps to solve a Maryland COVID-19-related problem.
USM Chancellor Jay A. Perman announced the formation of the COVID Research & Innovation Task Force in April. The USM COVID App Challenge launched a month later and participants were encouraged to design an app that could help bring Marylanders together to more effectively respond to COVID-19 and future pandemics.
TU and UMBC tied for the most winners, with the University of Maryland, College Park and University of Baltimore also having honorees. Fisher College of Science and Mathematics faculty member Jal Irani won the community category while Information Technology major Gregory Okhuereigbe ’20 took the student prize.
Patrick McQuown, Executive Director of Entrepreneurship at TU, said: ““We are all proud of professor Irani and Gregory. This is proof of the innovative thinking and entrepreneurial action that is part of the Towson University ecosystem. The 2008 financial crisis saw immense entrepreneurship and innovation and under President Schatzel’s vision, we want to ensure that our faculty, staff and students know that their solutions and new ventures are supported here.”
In the Community Category, Jal Irani developed “ContactClassroom,” a set-it-and-forget-it iOS application to aide in COVID-19 safety and transparency when returning to campus. It is designed for students, faculty, and staff to see a heatmap of campus traffic, risk ratings and occupancy of buildings, and to receive suggestions using machine learning for how to stay safe based on campus data.
Okhuereigbe ’20 won the student category by developing “Corey: COVID Buddy,” a powerful mobile “assistant” application that helps users conduct coronavirus self-assessments based on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The app also tracks symptom severity progression/regression, creates anxiety reduction strategies, and provides answers, personalized tips, and recommendations relating to COVID-19.
Each winning team is receiving a cash prize of $3,000, made possible with support from the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at UMBC. Participants in the competition included undergraduates and graduate students, faculty, and staff. A diverse panel of judges from large corporations, startups, and academia evaluated the submitted applications.
“The ideas and interest this challenge generated were inspiring— from our students, faculty and industry alike. It will be through this type of partnership that we will enhance our collective response to COVID-19 and ultimately improve patient and community outcomes,” said Tom Sadowski, USM Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and member of the USM COVID Research & Innovation Task force.
Companies providing technical and other resources to participants include Amazon Web Services and IBM, Inc. Participants could leverage the AWS-hosted COVID-19 data lake that is composed of multiple sources of data, in addition to other training, tools, and mentorship.
AWS also offered challenge winners and runners-up AWS credits to further their development and success. IBM, Inc. offered competition participants access to IBM Cloud accounts and COVID-19 Starter Kits, which are quick-start guides to begin creating applications tied to easy-to-understand use cases in just minutes. IBM and AWS experts also participated as USM COVID App Challenge judges. IBM is encouraging participants to enter the Call for Code Global Challenge.
“IBM was honored to be part of the USM COVID App Challenge that helped identify new coding talent and innovative applications to help keep people safe during our pandemic times", said John Joaquin, Managing Executive – Public Sector at IBM, Inc.
This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland and BTU-Partnerships at Work for Greater Baltimore.