LeadingAge HackFest names winners

The grand prize went to Team Excite for its tool, named GaitMaster, that team members designed to assess risk factors related to falls with the ultimate goal of reducing hospital readmissions and provide higher-quality care. The software works with the Xbox Kinect to measure gait and gait velocity via sensors on three different points on the hip as well as on the knees and ankles.

The team envisioned the tool being used by physicians, physical therapists and discharge planners, among others, to assess the progression of therapy. For their efforts, team members will share $5,000 and have the team name engraved on a trophy.

Team Excite had five members: Lauren Sims (pictured with trophy), an administrator-in-training in her last year of master's degree studies at George Washington University (GWU); Darshan Karnawat and Tapan Kilnani, two electrical engineering graduates at Penn State; Greg Patarini, a teacher of computer programming; and Philip Taffet, an undergraduate computer science student. The team's coach was Robert E. Burke, PhD, a professor in the Department of Health Services Management and Leadership and the Gordon A. Friesen Professor of Health Care Administration at GWU. Its Council of Elders advisers were Francis and Linda Turmo.

Sims was part of last year's competition, too, as a member of Team Life, which produced a project called Leading Life Coach.

"My favorite part is the elders on our teams and the experience they bring of the industry and themselves. It's a reality check. Every time I come, I always enjoy interacting with them," she told Long-Term Living. "And then I am in awe of the programmers and that they could do what they do in the 18 to 24 hours we had."

She said the idea for the team's project stemmed from a conversation with Taffet's father, a geriatrician who expressed a need for a tool to assess gait. Although happy with the team's project, Sims said she was still surprised when Team Excite was announced as the grand prize winner, because the competition produced "a lot of good ideas." (One team's project, in fact, has garnered interest at the HackFest that may lead to it reaching the market.)

The two runners up for this year's HackFest were Team Primed and Team Adage for the You Are Here and Promoting Activity Safety and Security (PASS) projects, respectively. Each team received a $2,000 prize. You Are Here is a tool designed to facilitate socializing and sharing of memories. PASS was developed to measure gait speed in an effort to identify fall risk and cognition issues.

The People's Choice Award winner, receiving $1,000, was Team CarreFours for its project, Living Well Together, consisting of assessment tools and evaluations designed to help identify candidates for co-housing and, when found, assist them in locating living spaces and companions. Meeting attendees voted on the People's Choice Award in the expo hall on Monday, and the winner was announced Monday afternoon.