Taiwan Collaborates with U.S. Again -cohack Stay together, cohack can help! Calling on Cross-domain Talents to Find Innovative Solutions to the Pandemic
Date: 2020/04/27
Caption: On April 24th, the Executive Yuan collaborated with AIT to hold the global event “cohack”. The picture shows that all distinguished guests took a picture together. From the left, Head of the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan Huang Li-min, III President Cho Cheng-hong, Minister without Portfolio of the Executive Yuan Tang Feng (Audrey Tang), Vice Premier of the Executive Yuan Chen Chi-mai, AIT Director W. Brent Christensen, Secretary of Science and Technology Advisory Group of the Executive Yuan Tsai Zse-hong, Director General of Department of North American Affairs Yao Chin-Hsiang, and Chairman of Graduate Institute of Data Science of Taipei Medical University Hsu Min-huei.
Caption: On April 24th , Vice Premier of the Executive Yuan Chen Chi-mai attended the cohack press conference and gave a speech.
Caption: AIT Director W. Brent Christensen was invited by cohack conference to give a speech
Caption: Minister without Portfolio of the Executive Yuan Tang Feng (Audrey Tang) explained and described the details of cohack, the event collectively held by both the Executive Yuan and AIT.
At the beginning of this year, the world was caught in a pandemic of severe special infectious pneumonia (COVID-19). The epidemic spreads so extensively that each unit from various fields has plunged into the epidemic prevention work. The European Union and the governments of many countries (Germany, Sweden, Estonia, India, etc.) are committed to the promotion of or facilitating online epidemic prevention hackathon, and encourage global creators to use technology to find applicable solutions and to solve diverse problems and needs arising from the epidemic.
The severe special infectious pneumonia (COVID-19) spreads all over the world. After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) established an anti-epidemic partnership and issued “Taiwan-U.S. Joint Statement on a Partnership against Coronavirus”, declaring to fight against the novel corona virus together on March 18th , Vice Premier of the Executive Yuan Chen Chi-mai and representatives of AIT met again on April 24th , indicating the two sides launched the“ cohack " collectively to encourage experts and participants to brainstorm in the hackathon. By promoting multi-party idea exchanges between government agencies and units from various public and private domains, applicable solutions supported by accurate anti-epidemic information could be jointly created and innovative anti-epidemic methods could also be found by collective efforts.
Vice Premier of the Executive Yuan Chen Chi-mai pointed out that cohack collects tasks from practical needs and overcomes current challenges. With the open-minded and innovative thinking and attitudes, participants of the event could come up with the solutions that are beneficial to the frontline medical staff, the public, the industry, and the international community. Vice Premier Chen further took the mask rationing plan as an example. The information platform developed jointly and efficiently by the government and private teams provided necessary information regarding mask demand and supply, which is well-acclaimed by other countries such as Japan and Korea. From the example, it is not difficult to tell that digital technology has its significance and value for epidemic prevention. Bolstered by the power of information and communication technology and data, the solutions from the cohack event are expected to take root, sprout and thrive. Additionally, all units work together to put beneficial anti-epidemic solutions or innovative services into practice, reducing the impact of the pandemic to the globe, building a more mature public health system and support system, and further being able to provide assistance to other nearby regions and countries.
The specially launched "cohack" was planned by the Executive Yuan's anti-epidemic technology team. With the "Stay together, cohack can help! “ initiative, six major epidemic-related topics were proposed (please see the attachments for more details), including: managing community resources, making smooth transition to the new world after the pandemic, protecting the vulnerable groups, predicting future pandemic outbreaks by the lessons this time, supporting front-line staff and essential workers, and establishing proper data-driven risk communication. These six topics take into account the needs of medical care staff, the public, the government and a variety of units and concentrate on the development of various tools and application solutions.
By calling on the governments of both Taiwan and the United States and the people of Taiwan and the United States to participate in and respond to the event, integrating the government's public information and private data, and the cross-border brainstorming of domestic and foreign teams, participants of the cohack work together to create solutions or innovative services to reduce the damage caused by the novel Coronavirus to the world. It is also expected that a more mature public health system as well as technology and medical related solutions could therefore be established and created.
For related information, please refer to the event website: https://cohack.tw
【Media Contact】
Division Section Director of Science and Technology Advisory Group of the Executive Yuan Hsiao Ching-teng Tel: (02)2737-7704 cthsiao@ey.gov.tw
Planning & Promotion Division(III) Joy Yen Tel: (02) 6631-8635 joyyen@iii.org.tw
cohack 6 Main Topicss:
Event Schedule: