The panel took place on May 6 2020, and brought together programmers, startup entrepreneurs and epidemiologists who took part in the hackathon CodeVsCovid19
Data Against Covid19
NEO Research Panel
The spread of SARS-COV2 has developed into an unprecedented public health crisis. New ways of testing, tracing, treating and communication need to be swiftly deployed across countries if we hope to halt the spread of the virus and return to normalcy soon. Therefore, we believe that mobilizing bright minds within a short time is critical. Our collaborative panel focused on the design of global technological solutions to address issues such as detection, outbreak tracing, patient monitoring and support. We explored the potential use of AI and technology to build efficient, real-time and large-scale solutions to problems faced by clinicians and populations during this crisis. Besides, we also discussed potential issues associated with the use of these technologies, such as data privacy and accuracy. Finally, we expanded on what it takes to push prototypes from the design stage to implementation.
«In a situation like this, you must have real time data»
The winning teams:




«There is a need for a system that can help people be confident at home, be monitored by clinicians and free the [hospital] resources.»
Our questions to the panelists:
1. Presentation of the technological solution
The participants presented their AI-powered applications to assist health practitioners and citizens. We discussed the need to use technological solutions in the context of the SARS-COV2 crisis.
2. What about data privacy? How do you ensure it?
The participants presented the designs chosen for data collection and their strategies to ensure data privacy.
3. What algorithms have you implemented in your solutions?
We explored the algorithms behind the applications. We talked about the coordination of similar applications across countries.
4. What about the adoption by the global population?
We discussed barriers and drivers of adoption of the application by the general population.
5. What are your next milestones and how do you plan to deploy your applications?
The participants exposed the next milestones towards large-scale deployment of the applications.
6. How do you think will data powered application be used beyond COVID-19?
We explored the future of data powered application in the “New Normal” and in next health care crisis.

Jean Baptiste
Dr Jean-Baptiste is the Founder of Oxford Epidemiology Services, a global epidemiology firm that has worked in more than 50 countries. Previously she served in senior technical leadership roles with USAID and partners who work for USAID

Florian Georg
Florian is currently the Developer Audience Lead at Microsoft for Switzerland. Previously he worked in different technical leadership positions at IBM

Fabian Luders
Fabian is currently working for the DLR (German Aerospace Agency) to implement his solution for future outbreaks of epidemics. Before that he worked at KIT and at 1&1 as Data Scientist

Alessandro de Carli
Alessandro is Founder and engineer of Papers.ch a mobile and crypto software company.
He’s also a founder at Hypergate, a fast, secure and accessible Kerberos Single Sign-On (SSO) solution for Android and IOS

Simon Hofer
Simon is a tech entrepreneur. Before initiating DetectNow, he co-founded CareerLunch, a recruiting tech company with international customers like PwC, Accenture, and Siemens. In 2018, he represented Switzerland at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA)

M.Zeeshan Karamat
Zeshan is an experienced software developer with more than 10+ years of professional experience. He has experience in leading big scale machine learning and software engineering projects at enterprises like BMW, Rolls Royce, Tetrapak, Feldschlossen, Microsoft, and more

Claudio Fanconi
Claudio is currently an electrical engineering student at ETH Zürich. Previously he interned as machine learning engineer at IBM