SAIC Students Sweep AMITA Design Challenge

The Daily Herald announced the winners of the AMITA Design Challenge 24-hour hackathon. The challenge was to devise ways that technology can help older adults with the aging process.

SAIC students beat teams from the University of Chicago, Northwestern, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Harper College, Illinois Institute of Technology, DePaul, Governors State, Northern Illinois University, and Dominican University. The first prize of $2,000 was awarded to a team of SAIC students whose concept, Kindred, was a standard alarm clock connected to Wi-Fi that enables a user to communicate remotely with family members, or anyone else, information about their well-being using a one to 10 scale through an app.

The second prize award of $1,500 went to another SAIC team that designed AMITAMATE, a database for older adults that enables them to to communicate with their doctors, while also allowing different doctors treating the same patient to talk to each other. Medical records could be uploaded to the "AMITA cloud" for viewing. In addition, it would have a human component, promoting an intergenerational living situation, with college students living for free with the older adults and helping them manage the database. The third-place prize was a tie, going to teams from UIC and Harper College.