Coding for a cause
UD students assist philanthropies at JPMorgan Chase's Code for Good Challenge
3:05 p.m., Oct. 2, 2014--A team that included three University of Delaware students won the Michael J. Fox challenge and was the runner-up team overall at this year’s JPMorgan Chase Code for Good Challenge.
Last week 41 students from 18 universities collaborated in Newark for an all-night codefest as part of the Code for Good Challenge. The nine student teams worked to address technology issues faced by philanthropic organizations The Michael J. Fox Foundation and iMentor.
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The Fox foundation challenged student software developers to create an interface that makes it easier for patients to get involved in clinical trials of Parkinson’s disease research.
While the Fox foundation suggested that groups create a mobile app, the winning team, which included UD master’s student Olumuyiwa Familoni and seniors Phil Tornquist and David Law, decided to go in a different direction.
The team instead created a program in which volunteers could send a blank email to the Fox foundation, providing a point of contact for the future. Tornquist said that this process is much simpler, especially for some older patients who may be more comfortable with email than with mobile apps.
“We took a unique approach to solving the problem by attacking it from a different angle,” said Tornquist. “That decision set us apart from the rest of the competition.”
“We focused on the problem and kept it simple,” added Familoni. “We didn't waste time being distracted or overambitious.”
Despite the taxing nature of the challenge, in which students work through the night, the team stayed aware with the help of coffee, snacks and music.
“It was fun and interesting working with a team with varying backgrounds,” said Familoni. “We leveraged each other’s strengths both technically and non-technically to win.”
“It was great to use our individual talents and combine them in a positive way to help the Fox foundation,” agreed Law. He added that their project’s lack of major glitches allowed the team to add “bonus features” for future implementation.
Law said that he felt “honored” to have the Fox foundation use his team’s work, which will be developed into a functional program for the foundation as part of the Code for Good Challenge.
“As part of JPMorgan Chase’s commitment to helping nonprofits solve these pressing issues, the firm will take the prototypes developed during the event and work with the nonprofits to build a fully operational solution,” said Courtney Smith Goodrich, head of global technology strategic programs at JPMorgan Chase. She added that JPMorgan Chase staff will work over the course of the next six to eight months to implement these solutions for the nonprofits.
Smith Goodrich said that JPMorgan Chase hopes that both the organizations and the students involved take valuable knowledge from the event.
“It is our hope that the students we work with have a greater understanding of how technology can change world for the better and how the skills they posses can be utilized,” she said.
The winning team certainly learned from their experiences. Tornquist said that by the program’s end, “I felt like I had completed a semester-long school project.”
“I think the strongest learning point is that anything is possible if you set your mind to it,” added Familoni. “We had a very limited amount of time to convert our imaginations into a tangible solution and we did. Also teamwork wins all the time!”
Smith Goodrich certainly agrees with Familoni’s statement on the importance of cooperation.
“We are profoundly optimistic about how much can be accomplished when people come together to do extraordinary things,” she said.
Article by Sunny Rosen
Photo courtesy of JPMorgan Chase