A Blockchain-based app wins SEIDOR's challenge at Hack UPC

Dream it. Hack it. Ship it. With this encouraging claim, Hack UPC 2018 kicked off, the fifth edition of the student hackathon that hosted 700 participants, including students from universities around the world. Once again, SEIDOR committed to technological talent and was a partner of the event.

During the three days of the hackathon, participants developed technological projects, with all kinds of technological materials and workspaces. The high level of the participants was demonstrated by the wide variety of programming languages and frameworks in the different projects. Additionally, the choice of challenges was based on the desire to learn rather than to demonstrate mastery of a programming language.

Additionally, the hackers had the opportunity to be in contact with tech companies and receive technical recommendations, as well as participate in workshops and tech talks. From SEIDOR, we presented the workshop Build your first Google Assistant, where our Android master explained step by step how to build a voice assistant with Google Assistant.

An idea that changes the world

SEIDOR challenged the participants to create the best eHealth solution with open technology. eHealth-based healthcare services reduce costs, increase quality of life, and create user experiences. These systems can be applied to a wide variety of fields, from patient care to chronic disease monitoring and physical and nutrition status control. Thus, we proposed an open theme to avoid conditioning the hackers. The challenge was well received, with more than 10 teams registered.

Validating medications with Blockchain

Of all the projects presented for the challenge, we valued those based on artificial intelligence. We liked the idea of a chatbot, as proposed by some participating teams, although we were open to other proposals that offered differential value. Another criterion was that it should be capable of generating behaviors from examples, also known as machine learning. And most importantly, it had to be a project with a scalable business vision.

The best team was HealthChain, an app-system based on Blockchain technology to simplify the online purchase procedure of medications without the need for a medical prescription.

The platform allows the approval of any medication purchased online. After making the online purchase, the user scans the medication with NFC technology (similar to the contactless feature on our credit cards) and through Ethereum, a platform based on a Blockchain model, verifies if the medication they have purchased is reliable. In summary, HealthChain allows:

• Secure online ordering of medications
• Order tracking and delivery
• Shopping on e-commerce sites worldwide
• Validation of any medication

The platform not only optimizes the purchase time but also allows obtaining medications much faster and more efficiently. Besides being convenient for patients, it is also beneficial for the pharmaceutical sector and governments as it prevents possible counterfeits.