Ask HN: How can a software engineer contribute fighting Coronavirus?

5 points by thefox 6 years ago | 3 comments

Not only in respect of social distancing and giving money to research and science companies, but I just wondered how I can contribute fighting against Coronavirus especially as a software engineer?

I'm work for a software company for a living, but I also like to spend spare time on open source projects which I put on GitHub. Are there some open source projects in science where people even without master degree can contribute?

What was the most challenging time in your live?

  - My Grandparents: WW 1 & 2
  - My Parents: Rebuilding everything from scratch which my parents lost in War.
  - Me: The first two days after Pokemon Go launched I was not able to play it. And one day YouTube was not working properly in full super extra hyper resolution.

Our grandparents (probably) were the World War 1 & 2. Our parents rebuild everything which was gone in the World Wars. Since Coronavirus will probably not the last disease of its kind, it almost seems that this our designation now.

BjoernKW 6 years ago |

About a week ago there was the #WirVsVirus ("Us vs. the virus") hackathon organised be the German federal government, which saw a massive turnout (~43k people): https://wirvsvirushackathon.org/

It still remains to be seen if any of the ideas developed during this event will make a significant contribution towards fighting the pandemic but many of the proposals look quite promising already. The creative energy and the networking alone probably were already worth it.

According to the German federal government similar efforts in other countries (such as Argentina, Belgium, Canada or India) are currently being organised.

All of the projects are open source and many of them are still ongoing: https://wirvsvirushackathon.devpost.com/ So, you can still contribute even though the main event is over.

There are many other hackathons currently listed on Devpost that attempt to address the various issues around the pandemic, too: https://devpost.com/hackathons?challenge_type=online

mauro_m 6 years ago |

I'd suggest https://foldingathome.org/ If you have a good GPU your PC can run mathematical calculations to help beat COVID-19. There is more on their website

bjourne 6 years ago |

You can help MoveOn to develop free campaigning software. https://opensource.moveon.org/ Perhaps not the most technically challenging work but it makes a ton of real life difference. The software is used by, among others, Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Right now it is used to raise funds for charities that help people affected by the Corona virus.