Flinders NT medical students collect third prize in national hackathon

Two teams comprising six students from Flinders NT Medical Program and one from CDU environmental engineering, recently represented the NT in a nation-wide virtual 2 day ‘Hackathon’, run by the Australian Medical Student’s Association (AMSA).

With a focus on making hospitals more sustainable and greener, the Greening Hospitals Hackathon brought together medical students from all of the medical schools around Australia, as well as engineering, design and environmental students, with 21 student teams pitching their projects to a panel of 5 judges.

During the Hackathon, students had four masterclasses on topics of sustainability in the health care system, prototyping and pitching ideas. Mentors, who are professionals in the sustainability and environment sector, were allocated to teams and coached them through perfecting their ideas.

The two teams representing the NT pitched the following projects:

  • implementing innovative water conservation techniques at Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and making a native food garden, and
  • pre-made meal delivery to hospital staff using almost exclusively local produce.

Excitingly, the pitch for local produce meals for hospital staff, named ‘your territory table’ placed third in the competition nation-wide! The team was awarded $2,000 from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation to implement their idea at RDH. Watch this space as the Flinders NT students get it off the ground!

The Greening Hospitals Hackathon was a great opportunity for students to learn about health care sustainability and get to know like-minded individuals. What I loved most about it though was that it was a goal driven weekend‘. Bianca Cottier – Flinders NT Year 1 Medical Student.

It was a unique weekend where students came up with feasible projects that could be implemented to address the huge carbon and water footprint of our hospitals. Students were empowered to make local changes, and the winning projects enabled to do so‘. Jessie Spargo – Flinders NT Year 2 Medical Student.

The Flinders Medical Student Society (FMSS) of the NT supported the event by fully catering for the students who competed.

More information: AMSA Code Green or Flinders Medical Student Society NT

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