Glazed Hackathon

What’s a weekend without a hackathon. I went up to San Francisco to the Glazed Hackathon held at Pivotal Labs on Howard St.

Unfortunately my laptop couldn’t connect to their setup, so I had to show each judge individually my hack.

My hackathon project was a service that connects to wearable devices and analyzes patterns in health sensors. If certain patterns appear, such as a lack of activity or maybe unusual heart rates, it may be a sign that the person wearing those sensors could be in trouble medically.

Most health wearable devices encourage better choices, but for some, they need more support than that. That is why family members are connected with the feedback and recommendations so they know when a problem is happening.

Sadly, suicidal family members may go silent or act as if everything is okay. Only after they choose to act on their decision do family members find out, which can often be too late.

One of the questions a judge asked was what if the battery dies. I didn’t quite think that through, but it is similar to the situation where the patient takes off the device. If there is no reading, it could be a sign that there is trouble brewing. A phone call to check in isn’t hard and can make a big difference to the person (not) wearing the device.

I ended up getting an honorable mention and received a copy of the Lean Entrepreneur by Eric Ries.

As I have learned, it isn’t about winning the hackathon, or being mentioned, but instead spreading a seed of a solution that I want to see become mainstream. Why? If someone can take this problem, and make a solution that can save lives, that’s all that matters. Help someone else in distress and make a difference.

On my way back to Caltrain, I walked through the Yerba Buena Gardens. There was a height measurement on one of the walls. Apparently the population is skewed towards the bottom. There was a fog bank that stopped over San Francisco as the sun set.

With the sunset, I caught the fiery sky in the reflection of a building with different colored windows.

I never noticed the architecture of some of the buildings on Fourth Street and took a moment to look at them closer.