Hamilton tech takes on COVID-19

Several initiatives from tech organizations across the city have sprung up in response to the global pandemic. Here are the ones we know about:

Maker Militia is an Innovation Factory project that connects makers – software developers, designers, people with 3D printers or laser cutters – with groups in need of support to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Notable projects include Hamilton-focused Operation COVID masks, which is looking for donations of 3D-printed parts for the Prusa Faceshield or donations of cloth masks; the site also has a collection of design challenges and hackathons aimed at addressing issues around the pandemic.

Hamilton-based dev shop Webility Solutions has teamed up with the Hamilton Academy of Medicine and Lumedi and released a Community Watch app aimed at identifying trends and hotspots in the spread of the pandemic in Hamilton, as well as helping assess how the pandemic is affecting the community. The app does this by sending users a short survey every day that asks questions around if there’s anyone in their household experiencing symptoms or if their employment has been affected. Users can fill out the survey online or via an app available on the Google Play Store; an iOS application is currently in development. Data gathered by the app, including a live heat map showing where people are reporting symptoms, is also available online.

Raise the Hammer‘s Ryan McGreal has put together a series of graphs that chart the number of COVID-19 cases in Ontario over time, with data sourced from the Ontario Ministry of Health COVID-19 info page. He’s also added a JSON API that can be used to download the data.

Orchestrated’s Nick Tomkin has created a free WordPress plugin that displays a COVID-19 banner.

These are all the projects we’re currently aware of; if there are any we’ve missed, please let us know.