Cooper Leong

Attending this Secure IoT hackathon was a truly unique experience. It was a small event tailored specifically for IoT, secure operating systems and 5G messaging. We were provided with an "IoT Dev Kit," which used a secure OS created by BlackBerry, Solace for safe pub/sub messaging, and used Telus 5G for a wireless connection. The device was bleeding edge technology and a first of its kind, and it was extremely exciting to get to work with it.

What we created over the course of the weekend was a software that would manage a users prescription drugs, and remind them when it is time to take what drug, and in what amount. This was accomplished by creating two Python Flask servers, one running on a laptop and one on the IoT Dev Kit. A user would input their prescription drug information such as name, dose, frequency, etc, and then send that data to the Dev Kit. The Dev Kit would then run a script to create a profile for that user, and when it was time for the user to take a prescription, it would inform them via voice provided by an external speaker that it was time to do so.

The finished product by the end of the weekend was nothing revolutionary, since time was limited and setting up the Dev Kit took a lot longer than expected. Luckily, the event was also heavily business oriented. There was the technical aspect of the project which I helped set up the Flask servers on the devices, and the business aspect which I spent more of my time on.

This was creating a value proposition and a business model canvas for our brand, named "Pill-O-Talk." We spent a large portion of the weekend reaching out to individuals who worked as health care providers, in retirement homes, and hospitals to ensure that our product was indeed solving a problem, and not creating one to solve.

We presented both a demo of our working product, as well as a pitch of our business proposal. We were fortunate enough to be chosen as one of 4 winning teams to proceed further with our business, and receive professional mentorship from someone working in the field of our choosing. So Pill-O-Talk did not end that weekend!

Our team was estatic to receive both funding and a mentor to continue with the business. We worked with our mentor and spent the following months rounding out our business model, comparing competition, determining key features, expanding the scope and furthering the capability of the physical device. Unfortunately, the program came to a close with the growing spread of Covid-19, which targeted our exact demographic of eldery individuals in retirement homes.

It was a truly rewarding experience, and we made a lot of great connections and gained a lot of knowledge on how a startup can thrive and how it can not.

Here's an article written by Queen's School of Computing about the event!

Mistakes and Lessons Learned

Since the Dev Kit was so new, there were a lot of bugs with getting it to work with the secure OS and messaging system. Setting this up ate a lot of time being able to work with the kit, narrowing the possibilities that we could get done by the end of the weekend.

Although for the business aspect, we got a very unique look at what it takes for a startup to gather funding, beat their competition, provide value to investors, and the importance of solving a real problem. The last point was something we talked a lot about; is our product solving a problem that exists, or are we creating a solution to something that people are indifferent about. This led to a number of pivots regarding our business model, up to the last minute, but all of our research and outreach led us to the proper solution.