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• April 8, 2016

Organizers of the inaugural  are hoping to get students interested in using drones to combat mosquito-borne illnesses. Various companies are already testing drones to see if they can be used effectively to deliver medication, drop mosquito catching traps and map standing water and mosquito breeding areas.

“For this year’s theme, we are choosing to focus on diseases vectored by mosquitoes such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, West Nile virus and Zika virus, to just name a few,” said Nazzy Pakpour, an assistant professor of biological sciences. “However, students don’t have to have any prior experience with mosquitos, infectious diseases, drones or programming in order to attend the event or to win it.”

The event is scheduled to coincide with World Malaria Day, which was established by the World Health Assembly in 2007. Students from diverse backgrounds will come together for collaborative problem-solving; they will be placed in teams of three-to-five people to develop solutions to problems of mosquito-borne illnesses through the use of land or air-based drones.

“Hack days are a chance to take crazy ideas about what could be or should be and try to make them a reality,” Pakpour said. “I describe it as everyone’s chance to be a mad scientist. You get a room full of smart, motivated people, give them cool toys, access to experts, lots of food, and then see what they can come up with.”

“Hack days are where many great implementations started from bright, innovative ideas,” said Reza Akhavian, an assistant professor of engineering. “Plus, it is going to be a fun day for students with great prizes. We are going to give away drones to the first-place team.”

The event takes place April 16 from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. It begins with a series of 10-minute motivational "flash talks" orientating students in various subject areas, including drone programming, current mosquito control surveillance, and strategies and issues surrounding aerial insecticides and transgenic mosquitoes. After the short presentations, students will break out into groups to brainstorm and develop their prototype or "hack." Academic and industry experts will rotate among the teams to provide feedback and technological assistance throughout the event.

Each group will be provided with either a flying or land-based drone as a tool to use in their hack solution. Flying drones will be in an enclosed, netted area, while land drones will be in a fenced area. The teams will use these arenas to test and present the hacks that they develop during the course of the day.

“An event such as a hack day provides students with a chance to interact and solve real problems instead of the usual rote learning assignments presented in class,” said James Tandon, an assistant professor of engineering. “Personally, I hope that the students are able to build new relationships with their peers, have fun building and tinkering with robotic drones, and get to practice problem-solving in a new and exciting field of research.”

to register for the event or to find out more details.