The Silicon-Valley-based Motwani Jadeja Foundation is bringing together the best minds in a 72-hour online hackathon called CODE19 to find solutions to India’s challenges against the coronavirus outbreak.

The contest which began on April 10, 2020 is open to everyone as individuals and teams, without any criteria or age limit. Working online from the comfort of their homes while India is on a 21-day lockdown, they collaborated with mentors, subject-matter specialists, data sources and a network of collaborators in the quest for solutions against COVID-19.

Asha Jadeja Motwani, Founder of Motwani Jadeja Foundation said, “Coronavirus is a huge health challenge facing India. Any new crisis requires a new set of ideas and mitigation strategies. Hence, it is our collective responsibility to put our heads together to come up with new ideas and solutions to fight the virus. CODE19 is a platform to bring such bright minds together. By harnessing the power of collaborative computer programming, it aims to create qualitative, open-source projects that would help solve the most pressing problems of the Coronavirus crisis in the country.”

She further added, “The focus of CODE19 is on developing solutions quickly and applying them in everyday life. The participants would be tasked with decoding the Coronavirus outbreak and its impact on India, encoding smart solutions to mitigate the impending Corona-inflicted challenges, and winning prizes worth US$10,000 to realize their solutions. The ideas and innovations they create would readily be available for scaling and implementation across the country.”

Projects are divided into eight specific themes: Medical treatment and testing; Travel and Tourism; Mitigation – Isolation, protection/masks, and social distancing in India; Social life, welfare, and awareness; Research and development; Open innovation for COVID-19; Education and awareness; and Industry.

The participants would work on solutions through ideations, wireframes, designs, developments and testing the prototype they are creating. Mentors and guides will help them sharpen their product ideas and convert them to sure-shot successful products that will aid India’s fight against Coronavirus. Under the Open Innovation category, participants would be free to propose their own ideas, technologies and innovative solutions, bioinformatics, datasets, apps for diagnosis, and the likes, which can be leveraged for strengthening the fight against Coronavirus.

CODE19 will also have a few online sessions including talks with business leaders as well as Yoga and Meditation, to keep the participants inspired. Prize money worth US$ 10,000 is on offer for the winners. There will be public voting at the end of the event to assess the most exciting projects. The winners would be announced at 9 pm on April 14.

Code19 India is being held in collaboration with Bengaluru-based HackerEarth. The Association of Designers in India (ADI) is also on board and shall assist in providing mentors through its network.