Last Sunday, two Biomedical Engineering students from the School of Engineering & Materials Science won first and second place at the Barts & The London Digital Health Hackathon.

The event featured nine teams of five participants, each tasked with developing an innovative application to address a public health issue.

First place went to second-year Biomedical Engineering student Ankita Vasudevan and her multidisciplinary team, which included a practicing doctor, a pharmacist, and two medical students. They developed “FindMyTrial,” an app that matches clinical trials with participants based on profile and criteria requirements.

Additionally, the app offers incentives through a points system that converts trial completions into vouchers, and provides university subscription options for enhanced research exposure.

Second place was awarded to a team led by fourth-year Biomedical Engineering student Balvinder Dhillon. The team also featured Chris Ng, a joint PhD student between Queen Mary and Barts, medical students from Imperial College London and Barts, and a health data analytics student from UCL.

Their project, “Cognify,” is a gamified app designed to combat clinician burnout. The application engages healthcare professionals with interactive voice and typing challenges, where a dynamic avatar mirrors their actions - singing along during the speech test or dashing through a virtual forest during the typing exercise, reminiscent of the excitement found in games like Temple Run.

These achievements underscore the power of interdisciplinary collaboration in driving digital health solutions.