During the weekend of the June 7th-8th I had the chance to be Technical Mentor in the IV edition of the Health Hackathon, based in Madrid.
How was the Hackaton carried out?
It was based in the School of Medicine of the UAM university, in Madrid. The organization was held another year else by COM Salud and AIE Salud. The other mentors were people from different companies and with different background. There were mentors of many specialities: business, product, design, health, law and technical, my expertise. Everyone did a great job.
The goal of the Hackaton was to develop innovative health products through the weekend. There were a few challenges: medicines without unfounded rumors, cancer, health video games, vaccines without unfounded rumors, electronic clinic history and the general prize.
The Hackaton started on Friday at 17h and ended on Saturday at 17h. The teams started programming on Friday at 18h. At the end of the Hackaton, every team had to have an elevator pitch to do the presentation to the jury. The limit time to send it was Saturday at 17h. Some teams prepared technical demos for the pitch. The event was finished when all the teams did their elevator pitch and the jury delivered the prizes, on Saturday at 20h.
Why did I have the chance to be a mentor?
I had the chance to be a mentor in this edition because I have been a participant in the last two editions. They were the second and the third one, in 2017 and 2018. I also participated in other kind of Hackatons so far. Then, I know how a Hackaton works. Besides everything, the last year we won one of the challenges with our project. Right now, this project is becoming in a Bussiness. Let me introduce you all to AppDermis.
What means to be a mentor?
IMHO, a mentor is the person who has to listen to the teams and see their strengths and weaknesses. The mentor should a person that know how to boost the strengths of the team and also to know how to hide their weaknesses. How could we do that? Well, the mentor should help the teams in order to provide them the advisory in the parts the expertise of the member of the teams don’t cover. Or at least, let them where to find what they really need in this field. In my way, it is the technical part. I tried to focus my advisory to the teams in bringing them skills, more than in tools. So, I recommended some tools to improve their work. You know, this is a Hackaton and people should be the quickest possible to move forward. In the end, you learn more from the teams than what they got from you.
You know, this is a Hackaton and people should be the quickest possible to move forward
How did I feel?
It was a pleasure to become technical mentor in this edition. I enjoyed a lot and I would do It again many times. I discovered that helping people (in this kind of events in particular or in life in general) is one of the things that I love.
And furthermore I have received several things of thanks: messages, words, etc.
So, thanks to everyone who made me feel comfortable and Happy Hacking!
PS: Some data
The organization was pretty good and the rest of the staff (organization and mentor of other areas like business, product or health) were amazing too.
The Hackaton was a success. More than 25 teams attended and the level of the projects were superlative. In every challenge I had at least two favorite teams after pitching.
Such a great projects were shown!
