Centennial College students bring innovation to the medical industry

WIMTACH is committed to giving students invaluable knowledge and experiences beyond the classroom with hackathons.

In July, WIMTACH hosted its third hackathon of the year. Over two days, 31 students were tasked with two challenges presented by Dr. Jon Hummel, interim Chief Surgeon of the Scarborough Health Network in collaboration with Intellijoint and OrthoBiomed, an industry partner since 2018.

These challenges represented the difficulties orthopedic surgeons face in the operating room to improve precision and non-invasive procedures. Access to possible solutions are invaluable to companies, especially those that are small to medium-sized that may not have the right resources.

“There are issues that we deal with [as surgeons] that these students will have amazing insight into, and I think it’s wonderful,” explained Dr. Hummel in an interview.

Each group was given the chance to consult with them to get feedback on designs and solutions. All esteemed guests, including Jim Hasnain of exactMed and Karla Garza of Intellijoint were impressed by the high level of engagement students showed.

After six group presentations, six question periods and careful deliberation by the panel of esteemed judges, the judges came to a conclusion:

Group 6 – Pranav Mehul Mehta, Abhiraj Singh, Aseespal Singh, Hit Desai and Vyas Dhruv – won first place in the hackathon.

Hackathons are more than just competitions. They’re opportunities for both students and companies to gain deeper insight into the challenges industries are currently facing. In that regard, everyone is always a winner at a WIMTACH hackathon.

To read a longer version of this story, please visit the ARIES website blog.

The next hackathon will be in late July/early August. To receive details, please subscribe to WIMTACH’s newsletter.