At hackathon, UIC creates AI innovations for health

Anuja Tayal, a UIC computer science doctoral student, began her first hackathon on the morning of May 30, a Friday. By Saturday afternoon, she’d pitched a prize-winning innovation. 

In a hackathon, people collaborate on engineering projects in a short, intense period, such as one or two days. This hackathon, hosted by UIC at the Crowne Plaza Chicago West Loop, had a narrow focus — AI and health data. Funding came from UIC’s first grant from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. 

The two-day computer science sandbox challenged 20 small teams to brainstorm innovative proposals for patient care. Their tools? Data with identifying information removed from 100,000 neonatal intensive care patients and patients who had injuries from falling. Data came from five medical areas: occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language pathology, nursing and physicians.  

UIC students, alums and faculty were part of several teams which excelled, earning high marks from judges for their proposals. 

After exchanging names and hellos, Tayal and her team members from the University of Iowa and the U.S. Department of Agriculture had 48 hours to bond, brainstorm and build a prototype. The hackathon had 97 participants in all, from U.S. universities, businesses, government and nonprofits. 

The health care focus of the hackathon facilitated the creation of real-world solutions, according to Tayal.

“It made me realize the impact we can make by collaborating and building solutions that help patients and doctors,” she said about the event.

Tayal, who studies health care communication, saw the hackathon as supplemental to her research. Her team’s second-place project proposed an AI-powered tool to help parents better understand the information they receive after their babies are discharged from neonatal intensive care.

“Our goal is to help parents feel less overwhelmed by discharge information so they can confidently care for their newborns. By making medical information more accessible, we hope to empower caregivers to better understand their child’s care needs,” Tayal said.

At the end of the competition, the teams dazzled a judging panel with five-minute presentations. That’s where Sam Kobel, a second-year UIC graduate student pursuing her degree in biomedical visualization, shone.

Her team’s first prize-winning proposal introduced an algorithm that scans patients’ medical histories for key terms that indicate fall risk. An aspiring animator, Kobel said the hackathon opened her eyes to new connections between creative visualization and patient care.

“I wouldn’t have known about this opportunity had I not been a UIC student,” she said.

Keaton Mullins, who graduated from the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences biomedical visualization program in 2024, joined the hackathon to gain a new perspective on his medical-illustration career.

Mullins’s team, which included UIC graduate students Rajashree Dahal and Pardis Hoessein Pour, used the American Hospital Association’s 4M model to propose a platform that condenses and presents patient data from multiple providers. Their proposal tied for third place.

“With my background in visual design, I was excited to learn more about the use of (large language models) and how to adapt that data into a cohesive visual solution,” he said. “The ideas for health integration that resulted from (the hackathon) hold incredible potential.”

Mohan Zalake, an assistant professor of biomedical and health information sciences in the UIC College of AHS, partnered with randomly assigned teammates from universities and health care and design startups. They used NICU data to propose an algorithmic predictor of necrotizing enterocolitis, an intestinal perforation that’s dangerous to premature infants. Their project tied for second place.

“Our different backgrounds and skills helped us identify attractive, novel solutions that wouldn’t have been possible in a lab,” he said.

All 20 teams offered inventive, data-driven ideas to improve patient outcomes, said event organizer Andrew Boyd, associate vice chancellor for research at UIC.

 “The hackathon’s impact is the lasting paradigm change of the individuals who attended and the future research trajectories that have changed,” Boyd said. “We have shown the value of hidden data, and now researchers around the world can explore the potential impacts.”

The universities of Iowa and Missouri sponsored the hackathon alongside UIC.