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SURVIVAL GUIDE
About this Page
The survival guide is your primary information entrypoint for all Health Hack Competition matters. This guide encompasses all the information required to get through this competition. It will remain available on this website and will be updated throughout the competition.
Communications
This program uses emails to notify innovators of their participation in the program, as a recruitment and advertising tool, and to share information to our community after the competition. Please white-list i4h@ucalgary.ca, @wixevents.com, and @forums.wix.com to ensure you don't miss any important emails and check back frequently for updates.
Expect all important program information updates to be shared via the website forum. Each team will also have their own forum for all design and program-related matters and can be used for communication in the weeks leading up to and during the Health Hack Weekend.
Covid-19 Precautions
With the end of the provincial REP program and municipal REP bylaw, in-person events will not require proof of vaccination. All attendees must wear a mask except when eating / drinking. The presenter can remove their mask as they will be 2m away from everyone else. Innovation4Health embraces the value of vaccinations, masking, and distancing in keeping you, your loved ones and our broader community safe.
Under no circumstances does our program promote or downplay the danger of close social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our program strongly encourages all participants to engage with their team, mentors and challenge champion only using online tools if possible.
If your team and project necessarily requires in-person collaboration and technical work, you must follow the gathering rules and restrictions outlined by the Government of Alberta. During in-person interactions at any location supported by this program, participants absolutely must follow the masking recommendations put forth by the Government of Alberta, as well as any municipal by-laws or building-entry requirements.
Please refer to the Government of Alberta public health orders for the correct and latest rules regarding physical distancing, mask usage, and other information.
Safety
The development of prototypes carries with it certain risks, examples being those associated with machining equipment, hand and power tools, electronics tools, and heavy or sharp materials. Innovators are expected to take all necessary safety precautions before and while using equipment. If you have any questions about operating equipment in the various spaces designated for prototype development during the competition, I4H strongly encourages innovators to always contact the local safety representative and authority for the location in which they are working, and to respect the regulations imposed at that location.
If an incident occurs on a university campus, call Campus Security (403-220-5333). Campus security are trained first-aid personnel and are available 24/7. If you are ever in need of immediate assistance, use the table below for a phone number to contact. In the event of a health emergency, do not hesitate to call 911.
Timeline
RSVP for Main Events
All Innovators, Challenge Champions, and organizers must RSVP for each event below. Click each event to see further details.
Note: only site members can RSVP for these events. Click Sign in/Log in in the navigation menu to create an account if you don't already have one. A site administrator will approve your membership if applicable.
Challenges
For the 2022 Health Hack Competition, the I4H team recruited a diverse set of 10 challenges from across Canada and of varying industry, entrepreneurially, and academically motivated sources. Find and review all those challenges selected for featuring in our program here.
Take a look through the whole list and see which ones interest you the most, best align with your skills and which you would be most motivated to create a solution for!
Project Milestones
We want you to get the most out of the 2022 Competition and have therefore designed Project Milestones to help you gauge your progress. Milestones are considered mandatory components of your project and include aspects related to safety, team communication, intellectual property, workshop attendance, and planning ahead. Participation in the Health Hack Weekend means completing the mandatory components on time to ensure you:
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Gain access to workspaces
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Have the opportunity to compete for awards
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Receive a program Certificate of Completion.
Completion of mandatory components (on time) counts towards points for consideration of awards - so take advantage of locking in these participation points!
Mandatory Components
This list contains all the mandatory milestones that you and your team must complete
during the program. By participating in this program, your team is required to complete the following:
Throughout the Program
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Attend two optional workshops beyond the mandatory design thinking and pitch clinic workshops OR two consultation sessions
End of Week 0 (March 26th)
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Sign up as a member on the I4H website if you haven't already and join your team's challenge forum.
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Complete and submit the Team Formation form. Before the Team Formation event is complete, physically submit your personal Liability Waiver and your team's Team Charter to the registration desk.
Week 1 (March 27 - April 2)
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Request mentorship. Send your Point of Contact (POC) a message through the Forum, requesting expertise in up to 3 knowledge areas identified in the mentorship section.
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Attend the Design Thinking Workshop. At least two members of your team must attend this workshop to learn about how to manage your team.
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Attend the Intellectual Property Workshop. At least two members of your team must attend this workshop to learn about the different kinds of intellectual property, with a focus on patents and monetization.
Week 3 (April 10 - 16)
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Complete your Phase 1 Development Report. The purpose of this report is to define team member roles and responsibilities, explore the problem space as a team and with mentor support, and research existing/competing solutions. The report also includes the IP plan and checklist. Upload your report to the forum or send it directly to your POC.
Week 5 (April 24 - 30)
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Complete your Phase 2 Development Report. The purpose of this report is to define solution ideation, selection criteria listing, solution selection, and your implementation/build plan for the Health Hack Weekend. Upload your report to the forum or send it directly to your POC. This report will be due May 4th, 11:59 PM.
Week 6 and Program End (May 1 - 9)
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Attend Health Hack Weekend
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Provide evidence of mentorship use (e.g., meeting notes, screenshots, etc.)
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Attend Pitch Clinic Workshop during HHW
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Attend Demo Day
Project Expenses
Team Prototyping Fund
Our program provides each team with a budget for materials and/or services incurred
during the development of their prototype. Don’t spend it frivolously, but put it to use to
make something amazing!
Team Budget: $500
Eligible Expenses
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Machine shop work orders
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Electronics, lab, development consumables
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Developments kits
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Web-hosting resources or other software
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Demo Day Interactive Content (Max $50)
Ineligible Expenses
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Food
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Transportation
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Parking
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Networking and conferencing software
Reimbursement
Expenses will be reimbursed after Demo Day, upon completion of the Expense Reimbursement Form (available soon: check back later!) with all supporting itemized receipts and debit/credit slips. As reimbursement will occur through the University’s Research Accounting system, teams must designate one Innovator to make all purchases, and this person must be a University of Calgary student.* Expenses will only be reimbursed to one innovator per team.
* If your team has no U of C students, please notify the program organizers immediately and our organizers will provide a solution.
Funding Requests and Eligibility Exceptions
If you have any questions or if you are unsure whether an item is eligible for reimbursement, please ask your POC prior to making the purchase so that it can be approved. Many program participants will have access to a premium account in one of several online conferencing softwares through your institution (e.g. Zoom, MS teams, etc.) Should your team not have access, our organizers recommend the free Google Meets platform. If you find that the budget is insufficient for your prototyping needs, our organizers will consider increasing the budget.* Again, check with your POC before making
purchases beyond the budget.
* Only pre-approved expenses that exceed the budget will be reimbursed.
Mentorship
The Neuro Nexus Health Hack Competition provides innovators with the opportunity to be matched with leaders in the medical innovation community from around the world.
Our program has recruited mentors with expertise in the following knowledge areas:
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Computer Science/Big Data
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Machine Learning
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Engineering - Mechanical
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Engineering - Electrical
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Engineering - Computer
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Industrial Design/Prototyping
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Medical Devices
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Business Administration
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Business in Healthcare
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Inellectual Property Management
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Medicine
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Software & Hardware Development
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Entrepreneurship
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Pitch Coaching
Mentorship Requests
To take advantage of this resource:
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Send a request for mentorship by messaging the details of your request to your POC on the Forum.
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Allow us to investigate our mentorship database and find the best match for your team.
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Receive the contact information for the mentor(s) our organizers recommend.
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Connect with your mentor(s), supplying them with information about yourselves, your project, and what support you request that they provide.
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Undertake the tasks or research recommendations provided by your mentor(s).
Mentorship Points
Effective mentorship use is a part of the mandatory program milestones tasks list you will be completing through-out the program, and thus contributes to your team’s evaluation score.
Be sure to make use of our mentors and collect points towards awards! The milestones requirements for mentorship will include completing a mentorship request, identifying as a team which aspects of the challenge could be supported by the mentor and executing on the recommendations and support of the mentors.
Workshops
The I4H workshop program supports participants with training in a variety of different innovation and design-related topics. Participants are encouraged to learn new skills or refine existing skill sets through training presented by experts in their fields. Attendance to certain workshops is mandatory for at least two members per team, as this contributes to your team’s evaluation score.
Workshop Registration and Attendance Instructions
Workshops will be promoted on the Forum, and limited registration on our Events page will follow a first-come, first-served basis. When registering, be sure to review the content of the workshop and check for resources you may need to prepare or bring to the event.
We are currently deciding whether workshops will be held online or in-person (observing relevant provincial health and safety guidelines). Stay tuned for more information for attendance instructions!
Workshop List
Listed below are the workshops planned for the program. New workshops may be added as needed and as available, so be sure to keep an eye on the website for those relevant to you. Click below to view more details and RSVP for the workshop.
Facilities & Equipment
Your team's prototyping efforts might occur in several different workspaces, including:
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The University of Calgary Main Campus or Foothills Campus
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Public makerspaces
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Other private locations
The facilities you choose to use will depend on what you require to develop a functional prototype for your project. Some facilities are only available during the Health Hack Weekend, while others will provide services in the weeks leading up to the event. Our program strongly encourages innovators to be resourceful in seekin out additional resources to facilitate the development of their prototype as necssary. Teams are expected to source their own materials for prototyping. Teams may contact prototyping sites to detemine whewther materials are available for use at each site.
To take advantage of our partner facilities for the Health Hack Weekend, you should advise your PoC about your intention to use a particular facility by April 29 (1 week before HHW) to ensure access to the facility. You can also indicate what equipment/facilities you will need when RSVPing on the Health Hack Weekend event here.
Judging & Awards
Judging Overview
On Demo Day, judges will determine the winning teams for:
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Best-Overall
and for the challenge tracks:
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Best-in-Category - Healthcare Systems
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Best-in-Category - Healthcare Devices
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Best-in-Category - Healthcare Platforms
Teams will present a 1 minute fast pitch and a 5-minute demo for the judges in order to communicate their proposed solution to the challenge, and the demo will follow 3 minutes of questions.
There will be one round of judging. The round will consist of:
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All judges viewing the short pitch stage presentations of the teams in sequence,
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Judging groups moving between exhibitor tables view live demos form each team
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A question period for judge to ask the team about their technology
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A short time gap to move to the next team and allow judges to fill rubrics for the team.
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Repeating steps 2 to 6 for all teams in the challenge track.
The key outcome of the evaluation process is to identify the teams which have been outstanding in the accomplishment of their:
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Communication: How well did the team communicate their project?
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Innovation: How creative is the solution in terms of its application of scientific and technical principles?
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Impact: How well-positioned is the solution to impact the Canadian senior population and/or healthy aging?
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Track Specific Goals: How well did the project achieve its track-specific goals?
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Senior Engagement: How well did the project involve and consider the senior population? Note: This rubric is only applied to the Senior Engagement award.
Judging Evaluation Criteria
Teams will be evaluated during their demo for the following qualities:
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Communication - 15 pts
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Presentation: Well organized, logical structure, order and flow. Useful and clear visuals. Articulate speaker, minimal jargon. Well designed, engaging and enjoyable to watch.
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Knowledge: Strong understanding and clear, public audience appropriate description of the challenge, the field and problem domain, and the application and design justification.
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Team: Convincingly and efficiently communicates team’s strengths, passions, diversity.
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Innovation - 15 pts
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Technology: Sound technical design and explains the solution in detail. Strong engineering practices and technical basis of design. Elegant level of complexity.
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Functionality: Solves the problem effectively as needed and in a well-designed manner. Sufficiently creative, but clear fit from challenge to solution.
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Application: Comprehensive or holistic design and solution that shows clear applicability to stated problem, is context-aware, and realistically applicable for real-world use.
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Impact - 15 pts
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Merit: Shows clear development effort in work-to-date. Generated a scalable, effective solution with potentially broader scope of impact.
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Plan: Serious consideration taken to ensure continued project progress, including goals, clear next steps, possible obstacles, and, if relevant, other potential applications.
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Potential: Project and team combine to have high possibility of further success and impact, active effort shown to grow the team’s network and enable real-world solution use.
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Awards
The following awards will be disbursed:
Best Overall - $7,500 + in-kind services
Awarded to the best overall ranking team
Best in Categories - $5,000 + in-kind services
Awarded to the best team in each category (categories to be announced)
People’s Choice - Innovation4Health branded hoodies
Demo Day attendees will vote for their favourite team based on 1-minute pitches!
Senior Engagement Award - $500
Awarded to the team with the most engagement with seniors during the development of their project.
Award Disbursement
Coming soon!