Silverberry Datathon Recap

July 20-21, 2018 at Galvanize, San Francisco

Background

On July 20, 2018, about fifty innovators and builders got together to design genetics apps. Over the course of 24 hours, they developed creative solutions for bringing DNA assessments into the hands of consumers. A whopping eight (of nine) teams completed their designs. Congratulations!

 

Fun facts!

  • Aside from one person, none of the participants had taken a DNA test before.

  • About half of the participants came as a group; the rest found their teammates at the event.

  • Most of the teams were a combination of developers, designers, data scientists, and biologists.

  • Almost half of the participants were women.

  • Three members of the winning team (out of five) were joining a hackathon for the first time!

Watch this interview with Dr. Brandon Colby, Founder & CEO of Sequencing.com.

Watch this video to hear feedback from participants.

Watch this interview with Ashley Besecker, Founder & CEO of Crave Health.

Panel of judges

At Silverberry, we love supporting the teams as they bring their ideas to life, so we asked an external panel of judges to review the apps made and determine the winners. Here is the list of judges who kindly agreed to participate, some traveled to San Francisco for the event and shared their valuable insights:

 

  • Dr. Brandon Colby, Founder & CEO of Sequencing.com

  • Ashley Besecker, Founder & CEO of Crave Health

  • Mark Llorente, Mentor, Galvanize Data Science Program

  • George Minardos, CEO of TopCoin (Blockchain)

  • Tyler Besecker, President, Dana F. Besecker Co. Inc., Representing Consumers

Teams & their designs

  • S Plus: A chrome extension to filter e-commerce websites, integrated with Amazon (won the first award)

  • Elyxr: Voice Assistant (Google, Alexa, etc.)

  • Incompass: Matching recipes with DNA Assessment

  • GĒNĒ: DNA Group Matching

  • ImaGene: Empower Kids with DNA Data

  • Malina: UX Design for DNA Data and Complex Reports Presentation

  • X-Enhacement: A Fitness Planner

  • SmartCoach: Virtual Fitness Coach

 

A note on behalf of the judges

Dr. Brandon Colby
Founder & CEO of Sequencing.com, Marketplace for DNA-Powered Apps

The panel of judges considered the following criteria to evaluate the apps:

  • Novelty of the Idea

  • User experience

  • Scalability

  • Completeness of the project

The apps were diverse. Each one approached the use of DNA data from a unique, interesting angle and proposed a handy solution for the consumers.  The top two solutions that grabbed the judges' attention were the ones which had made it extremely easy for the users to adopt and use their DNA assessment in daily decisions, with almost no learning curve. For instance, SPlus can connect to any e-commerce website and filter the list of products based on DNA, while Elyxr created a voice assistant to integrate with Google or Alexa.  

From there the judges selected the apps that could get integrated into daily routines, in a slightly more complex way, to optimize a fitness plan or select a recipe. 

Finally, the judges selected apps with interesting ideas — like creating group matching based on DNA, or helping parents to better empower their kids with information about themselves, or design concepts for information capsulation and articulation.

As genomics science advances along with DNA sequencing technology, the next couple of years will provide ample opportunity for such ideas to get adopted and offered to the market at a very high rate, such that everyone can be empowered to better manage their health and wellness.

Awards

  • The top five teams were awarded a Silverberry DNA Testing Kit and a combination of DNA wellness reports. Due to the exceptional quality of the apps created we were compelled to increase the number of winning teams from three to five. Amazing!

  • The remaining participants will receive a Silverberry t-shirt.

  • One participant received a three-month membership at Galvanize.

  • Any team that completes their application will receive free support from Sequencing.com and .build domain to host their apps.

  • One person who chooses the Silverberry Nutrition Package as part of their prize, or purchases it, will be entered into a raffle to receive three hours of free nutrition consultation, offered by Ashley Besecker of Crave Health.

  • All participants that completed their project and presented receive a Silverberry DNA Hackathon Certificate of Completion.

Also thanks to Galvanize and Silverberry Team members:

Front Desk: Joy Subaran, Sam Nichols, Glenda Racklin, and Ayo.

Event Coordinators and Presenters: Karina Canales, Morgan Fogarty, Daniel Patino, Victoria Saunders, Lisa Jung, Zon Chu, Dennis Antela, Sherif Abushadi, Natalia Gaouke, Alesin Tipler, and Joseph Mottahedeh.

We would also like to thank Palmyra Restaurant for their quality homemade food which powered everyone for the 24 hours of non-stop design and coding!

About sponsors

Galvanize brings tech education and entrepreneurship together in a collaborative campus. Galvanize campuses are home to an eclectic mix of entrepreneurs, skilled programmers, expert data scientists, men, and women motivated to make an impact: www.galvanize.com.

Sequencing.com's first-of-its-kind HIPAA and Privacy Shield compliant online platform transforms genetic data into meaningful information. The platform includes an app marketplace with more than 50 DNA-powered apps that empower individuals and healthcare professionals to easily tap into genetic data for deep and rich insights. It is a one-stop-shop that organizes available genetic-based apps into the world's largest app store for DNA: www.sequencing.com.

Crave Health is an integrative health practice in Bellevue, Washington comprised of registered dietitian nutritionists and licensed mental health counselors. Our providers work with clients in-office, and by phone or video with telemedicine. We work as a team, consulting each other on cases frequently, and always communicate with other providers on the clients health care team: www.crave-health.com.