With an exciting start to the Fall semester, the Entrepreneurial Institute is gearing up for the Healthcare Makerthon, where innovative entrepreneurs take on the challenge to discover and refine solutions that combat needs in healthcare and biomedical sciences. A primary goal of the Makerthon is to achieve more cross-school collaboration, introducing those specializing in engineering, for example, to those in medicine, business, or social sciences, to design high-tech solutions to un-met needs in healthcare.
In many ways, the Makerthon is reflective of what we as an Institute work towards–breaking down silos across the University to encourage more interdisciplinary collaboration and galvanize a community of entrepreneurs. We believe the greatest innovations are often a function of ideas from many intellectual perspectives. Continuing the successful delivery of the initiative over the past two years, we are excited to share that President Andy Hamilton will be joining us as the lead speaker at the Makerthon Weekend taking place on Oct 6-8.
Dee Dao, a Venture Associate for the NYU Innovation Venture Fund who is leading the Makerthon, is most looking forward to exactly this. She explains, “We are changing the way healthcare innovates by facilitating the formation of a multidisciplinary team to apply knowledge from one field to another in order to create a solution that wouldn’t have been otherwise possible. To have President Hamilton's support and encouragement is tremendous towards accomplishing the goals of the initiative.”
The co-founders of Levitas, last year’s Healthcare Makerthon challenge winner, are emblematic of this phenomenon. Led by Amar Seoparson (Tandon '17) and Anthony Oganov (CAS '17), Levitas is developing wearable devices to prevent falls in hospital patients, by notifying nurses immediately when patients get out of bed. Seoparson, a computer engineering and electrical engineering student at Tandon, describes his partnership with Oganov, a neuroscience student at the College of Arts and Science, “I don’t think we [the co-founders] would have been successful if we didn’t have such complementary skill sets.” Serving as a mentor for this year’s competitors, he is most “looking forward to seeing what interdisciplinary teams arise. There’s going to be a bunch of people from Langone, Tandon, Stern etc. and I’m excited to see what products they make with each other.”
About the NYU Healthcare Makerthon:
The Makerthon is a high energy opportunity to work alongside passionate members of the NYU community to solve for impactful, unmet needs in healthcare. You will experience the rush of being challenged and thinking on your feet with your multi-disciplinary team and industry mentors. Teams of NYU students, faculty, researchers, and staff will compete to win over $10,000 in total prizes.
The Healthcare Makerthon will be rolled out in three phases -
Phase I: Healthcare Innovation Challenges Announcement & Teammate-Hunt (Sept 14). Phase II: Makerthon Weekend (Oct 6-8). Phase III: Venture Support (Six weeks starting Oct 15).
Looking to join a team and tackle a challenge? Come to the teammate hunt and challenge announcement on September 14th.
