New Jersey High Schoolers Design VR App to Diagnose ADHD

The winning team stands holding the $5,000 grand prize. Image: TechCrunch.

At TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY 2017 Hackathon over the weekend (May 13-14), three high school female students from New Jersey won first place for designing a virtual reality (VR) tool that can help diagnose attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The hackathon preceded the Disrupt NY 2017 conference this week (May 15-17) and brought about 750 engineers, developers, designers and other individuals together to build tech projects, TechCrunch reported. A total of 89 teams each presented a one-minute demo for a chance to win the $5,000 grand prize.

The winning team built a VR app for the HTC Vive called reVIVE that uses three tests to “gauge the user’s motor skills, sustained concentration and reaction time,” TechCrunch wrote. All scores are recorded in the app and sent to their APIs through Firebase as well as IBM Watson, enabling the data to be collected and analyzed over time.

Two of the three students worked with #BuiltByGirls, an organization that garnered national attention after AOL and former First lady Michelle Obama launched the #BUILTBYGIRLS Challenge.

The reVIVE app is not meant to replace a therapist’s role in treatment, but rather serve as a telemedicine tool that can speed up the often costly and lengthy process. According to a Devpost post, the team will explore additional use cases for the app, like anxiety and other disorders.

Read more on the hackathon’s other prize winners here.

About the Author

Sri Ravipati is Web producer for THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • glowing digital lock surrounded by futuristic dollar signs, stacks of currency, and coins, connected by neon circuit lines

    FCC Reports Strong Interest in Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program

    The Federal Communications Commission has received 2,734 applications totaling $3.7 billion in funding requests from schools, libraries, and consortia for its Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program, the agency reported in a recent announcement.

  • person signing a bill at a desk with a faint glow around the document. A tablet and laptop are subtly visible in the background, with soft colors and minimal digital elements

    California Governor Signs Off on AI Content Safeguard Laws

    California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially signed a series of landmark artificial intelligence bills into law, signaling the state’s latest efforts to regulate the burgeoning technology, particularly in response to the misuse of sexually explicit deepfakes. The legislation is aimed at mitigating the risks posed by AI-generated content, as concerns grow over the technology's potential to manipulate images, videos, and voices in ways that could cause significant harm.

  • stylized illustration of an open guidebook with a glowing AI symbol hovering above

    ED Releases Toolkit for Intentional Use of AI in Education

    The United States Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology has released a new resource to help education leaders navigate AI adoption while ensuring student protection.

  • a digital lock symbol is cracked and breaking apart into dollar signs

    Report: Ransomware Costs Schools Nearly $550,000 per Day of Downtime

    New data from cybersecurity research firm Comparitech quantifies the damage caused by ransomware attacks on K-12 and higher education institutions.