The full HealthHack site is up! Go look!
What is HealthHack?
HealthHack is a weekend datahack working on problems that medical researchers face. Medical researchers create vast amounts of data, but don’t always have good ways to analyse, visualise and communicate it. On the weekend we’ll have available for you real life medical researchers, their problems, their data.
HealthHack is part of ChangeMakers Festival
Latest news
We’ve got a few new problems for you! See down the bottom of the page…
Sadly, Pia Waugh, chair of the Australian arm of the Open Knowledge Foundation, can’t make it to Melbourne anymore. Pia will be joining us live via Google Hangout on Friday 25th October.
Don’t forget you can now participate remotely if you’re not in Melbourne – register as normal, and get get in touch to organise details.
Where and when?
Fri 25 Oct – Sun 27 Oct, at ThoughtWorks office, 15/303 Collins St Melbourne.
Please arrive 6pm Friday night a 7pm start.
Register so we know you’re coming!
How will it work?
Before: Some suggested problems will be on the site beforehand so you can start thinking about what and how to tackle. There will also be pointers to the free datasets available online if you’d rather choose something freeform – and a bunch of scientists will be around on the weekend to help, guide and mentor.
Friday night, 6pm onwards: This is a must. You can’t take part in the hack if you miss out on Friday night! Form a team, choose a problem, have a drink if you fancy, get started. When you choose a problem, you will need to figure out what ‘done’ means, and how you will test it. Arrive at 6 for a 7pm start.
Saturday & Sunday, 9am onwards: All the wifi, coffee and food your heart desires. Plenty of developer tools and support. Experts in research and technology will be around to act as data custodians and problem owners, as well as facilitators to help teams focus and move through problems.
Saturday 3-4pmish : checkpoint. Stop for a break, tell everyone where you’re at, maybe find someone to exchange skills with.
Sunday 4pm: down tools! THE END! showcase! prizes! drinks!
Who is this for?
Health Hack is open to everyone and anyone. From data vis, designers and UX’ers, through to web developers and hard core application developers. Never participated in one of these things before? A bit of a newbie? Perfect; come along. Pull a team together to tackle some fascinating problems in medical research. Build your own mashups, data visualisations and apps. HealthHack is about having fun and learning, regardless of your level of expertise. From first year university students through to hardened developers, everyone who gets involved will come away from the weekend with something new, whether it be code, content, an idea or new contacts.
Can I participate remotely?
Yes you can! Form your own team where you are, or find a team in Melbourne to work with on Friday night. We’ll have video link facilities. If you know any scientists near you who would like to participate, all the better. If you’d like to be involved remotely, please get in touch with us ahead of time so we can organise All The Things.
Terms and Conditions
All code and APIs must be available under an appropriately open license that allows reuse, commercial use, remixing and redistribution. As the owner of the code you can of course fork that code and commercialise if you want, but to be eligible for the competition, the codebase and demonstration submitted must be open sourced. All other content submitted must be Creative Commons BY licensed. The reason for the open licensing of code and content is because HealthHack is about useful outcomes that anyone can use and build on.And it goes without saying, bullying and harassment have no place at HealthHack – play nice or go home 🙂
Our sponsors
ThoughtWorks Australia
Monash University, Faculty of IT
V3 Alliance
Unlockd
Walter & Eliza Hall Institute
VLSCI
HI can remote teams take part in HealthHack?
Hi Derek,
Yes that should be possible (also really cool!). We have a projector and internet – perhaps using Skype or Google Hangout? Let’s sort out logistics offline.
Would you be looking to have a team up there, or join a team in Melbourne on Friday?
cheers maia
Should teams participating remotely register via eventbrite or should they contact you directly, Maia?
Please do register if you’re planning to participate in any way, and get in touch with the organising team (okfn dot melbourne at gmail dot com). The registration form now asks if you are a remote participant 🙂
I know very little about DNA/Chromosones/etc., will this be an issue? Is there some background reading I could do to help me understand the problem domain of problem 1 before attending?
It’s worth reading up about basic genetics principles if that’s the kind of problem you’d like to tackle. There will be plenty of people around over the weekend who can help with the specifics of what they need.
See https://www.udacity.com/course/bio110 for training
Looking forward to it!
We are too Chris – see you there!
Maia,
Could you please tell me what time the event is on for Friday 25th October at Thought Works Collins Street. The precise address would also be good.
Please also advise if first timers can just attend for information and familiarisation purposes only.
Robert,
The page has just been updated with times. Thanks for the reminder!
Doors open at 6pm tonight for a 7pm start. The address is 15/303 Collins St, at the Bendigo Bank building at the corner of Elizabeth. There will be signs around. Please register if you’re intending to come along – healthhackmelb.eventbrite.com.au – the registration site contains more info. If you are a first timer, yes please do come have a look and get a sense of how things work.