HACK'IN PHARMA: nine faculties of pharmacy compete in the 1st edition of a national hackathon
The Faculty of Pharmacy at Université Paris-Saclay and IncubAlliance Paris-Saclay recently joined forces to organise the 1st edition of a national hackathon for faculties of pharmacy. From 7 to 9 March 2024, approximately 100 students came together to tackle the subject of “Oncology: from prevention to recovery”.
The teams of a dozen students each, from nine faculties of pharmacy from across France1, put their heads together to develop start-up-worthy projects or prototype viable solutions.
The adventure began in October 2023, when the students were given a presentation of the hackathon and a roadmap of the programme, before project development with teachers got underway and selections were made regionally. Nine teams were then formed with the goal of consolidating their projects and testing them at the hackathon organised by the Faculty of Pharmacy at Université Paris-Saclay.
From Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 March 2024, some 100 passionate students brainstormed for a total of 33 hours, testing, creating and retesting, before presenting their solution to a jury of healthcare professionals. To help them, approximately 30 experts were on hand to advise and support them during their work, from: Spartners by Servier and BioLabs, Janssen, Pfizer, the charity Laurette Fugain, Banque Populaire Val de France, Trois Prime, Foresight Data Agency, Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster, Smart Pharma Consulting, SATT Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Saclay and a team of start-up managers from IncubAlliance Paris-Saclay.
The three winning teams were:
- The Jury Prize was awarded to the team from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Université d’Aix-Marseille for their project of a coal pebble for toilets, to filter the urine of people aiming for the peak of metabolite toxicity in the hour following chemotherapy.
- The Favourite Prize was awarded to the team from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Université Clermont-Auvergne for their project to design an app aimed at matching carers with other carers.
- The Academy of Pharmacy’s Prize was awarded to the team from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Université Paris-Saclay for their project to develop an app which can detect chemo-induced cognitive impairment.
A huge congratulations to the three winning teams and to all those who took part in the competition! Together, you have helped to imagine new solutions for the future to improve the care and support provided to patients, and tackle the fight against cancer.
1 The nine faculties were from the following universities: Université Paris-Saclay, Aix-Marseille Université, Université Clermont Auvergne, Université Grenoble Alpes, Université de Montpellier, Université Paris Cité, Université de Lille, Université de Lorraine, Université de Bordeaux.