The Belgian Hackathon has been a great experience! It took place in Bruges on October 25th and 26th, and it was hosted by two local universities: KU Leuven – Campus Bruges, and Howest - Sportinnovatie Campus Bruges.
From the Belgian Hackathon to the Game Jams
This event was the last hackathon of the project and the last opportunity for entrepreneurs, patients, rehabilitation personnel as well as technical specialists to challenge their ideas and find out new concepts concerning rehabilitation with virtual and augmented reality.
During the two-day workshop, participants had the opportunity to attend many inspiring presentations held by Kurt Claeys, (KU Leuven Campus Bruges), Tim Coppejans (Sportinnovation campus), Remco Hoogendijk (Sint Maartenskliniek), Sara Arlati (Italian National Research Council /EuroVR), Dr Dido Green (Royal Free/Jönköping University Sweden) Noël Keijsers (Sint MaartensKliniek), René Luigies (GameSolutionsLab) and Bart Collet (Hyperadvancer).
Seven groups worked hard to design new solutions about how to tackle the hurdles of five clinical themes and the group awarded was VR-OOM, which proposed an innovative solution for therapy adherence. This is one of the teams that will have the opportunity to participate in the next stage of the project, the Game Jams, and develop their concept into a workable demo.
The Game Jams are based on the hackathons’ themes and each event will be focused on a clinical theme:
Dutch Game Jams
- Dates: 29-30 November - 1 December 2018;
- Location: Sint Maartenskliniek, Hengstdal 3 6574 NA Ubbergen, The Netherlands;
- Clinical themes: Lower limbs and mobility; Training of upper limb movements.
UK Game Jams
- Dates: 15-16-17 January 2019;
- Location: Teesside University, Darlington Campus;
- Clinical theme: Pain management; Engagement and immersion to promote treatment adherence.
German Game Jams
- Dates: 1-2-3 February 2019;
- Location: St. Mauritius Therapieklinik, 111 Strumperstrasse, Meerbusch, 40670, Germany;
- Clinical theme: Behavioural and cognitive training in children with brain injury.
VR4REHAB’s objective is to create new business by using the innovation potential that emerges from the intersection of VR-technologies and the demand from rehabilitation clinics. The project aims to develop 5 new pilots of VR-technology based rehabilitation tools, to be introduced into the market. Game Jams are the second stage of this process: the best demos developed in this phase, will become real applications during the Challenges.