In line with a vision to improve the long-term care of older adults, the Scarborough Eldercare Support Network (SESN) were motivated to address ongoing challenges faced by caregivers of adults with dementia. They identified fall incidents and injuries as one major pain point for these patients, but they were challenged with developing a system for fall prevention and pain detection. With this goal in mind, in October 2024, SESN and WIMTACH partnered on a three-day hackathon for Centennial College students to develop a solution.

Students were tasked with producing a user-friendly, culturally-sensitive, and multilingual software application to reduce and prevent falls and fall-related injuries. Sahil Gupta, a Centennial College student in the Software Engineering Technology program, was one hackathon participant who was eager to address the challenge. “During that time, I felt like I had a privilege to participate in this challenge because it would give me an opportunity to create a kind of software that would look after the [wellbeing] of elderly people,” he explained.

Within a team of six, composed of students from programs like Nursing and Artificial Intelligence, Sahil was able to lead his team to successfully develop a prototype of an application, targeted towards older adults with Dementia. His team spent a day brainstorming effective ideas for the challenge and with a sense of direction moving forward, on the second day, they developed an application using React. The application was developed to be compatible with a variety of devices including smart TVs and phones, featuring an alert for fall incidents. The device also informs caregivers of when and where a fall incident has occurred. “If they are going far away from a limited area it will send a notification,” he explained.

In just the three days allotted to each team, Sahil and his team also developed a concept for an Artificial Intelligence feature to enable voice assistance. He also facilitated a mock presentation with his team for the final demonstration day of the hackathon. In the end, they were recognized for their creativity and attention to detail, and they were awarded second place for their innovative ideas.

For Sahil, this challenge enabled him to gain valuable exposure to a leadership role and it enhanced his understanding of how to solve problems under tight deadlines. “The most important skill I learned is to stay calm and to work under pressure,” he said. “What I learned is that it is all about team work and making sure that I am communicating well.” He explained that his team lead role also enabled him to learn more about project management work since he was tasked with keeping the team organized and on track during the hackathon. He even noted that the collaborative environment for the team helped him to feel confident about sharing his ideas. “WIMTACH was my first hackathon because I actually contributed,” he said. “It was a good experience because … I was working on an actual [industry] problem.”