RSU 24-hour Health Tech Hackathon – First Prize Awarded to Team Working to Prevent Teeth Grinding in Sleep

The Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) 24-hour Health Tech Hackathon was held online on 23 -24 October. More than 40 students from various Latvian universities formed nine teams and participated in creating innovative ideas. These included state-of-the-art technologies and innovative projects to improve the medical and health care sectors.

The main organisers of the RSU Health Tech Hackathon are the RSU Student Union together with the RSU Business Incubator, the RSU Alumni Association and the Knowledge and Innovation Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Health created an exciting and science-filled event for students.

The teams looked for information and worked jointly to create new and meaningful solutions for the future of medicine. The work of the teams was then evaluated. Although not an easy task, the jury managed to choose the three best teams, which divided the main prize of 2,500 euros between them. 

1st place at the RSU Hackathon was won by the team Antibrux - Līna Zommere, Laura Rozīte, Agnese Anna Pastare, Jēkabs Jaunslavietis and Emīls Timofejevs - who were awarded 1,000 euros to develop their idea. The team developed an Antibrux tooth guard to prevent bruxism, or teeth grinding during sleep.

Students studying robotics, dentistry and other health care programmes from both Riga Technical University (RTU) and RSU joined forces to find a solution for sleep bruxism – they installed vibration sensors in a tooth guard, which helps determine the exact moment when a person grinds their teeth. A signal is then sent to an app, which collects statistics on teeth grinding. The app was developed combining the ideas of all representatives of the group and will show statistics and useful tips. 

 Antibrux will get the opportunity to present their idea at the EIT Health Summit and compete against the creators of the best ideas from all over Europe. The event is going to take place between 24 November and 3 December. At last year’s event, students from RSU won second place. 

2nd place at the RSU Hackathon this year was won by Foodie - Aleksandrs Teilans, Marks Puhalskis, Gatis Lauva, Sintija Kukaine, Jānis Jurkāns – who developed an idea for an app that would enable patients with eating disorders find suitable specialists enabling patients to improve their health more quickly and effectively.

3rd place was won by the team No trace, no spoils - Priya Raja Lakshimi Gnanasekaran, Navidhusain Nazir Shaikh, Deepak Raj Gopal Gnanasekaran, Singaravelan Bala, Pavithra Gunasekaran - who developed a technology that would help determine if products are damaged and can no longer be consumed, thus preventing food poisoning. 

All the great ideas were evaluated by a competent and knowledgeable jury comprised of six experts: 

• Baiba Ziemele, representative of the Patient Organisation Network
• Justīne Vīķe, representative of the RSU Research Department Technology Transfer Office
• Anda Čakša, former Minister of Health, Member of the Board of Children's Clinical University Hospital and Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital, currently - Saeima Deputy
• Kristaps Krafte, founder of Vigo
• Signe Vēliņa, Member of the board of the Association of Biopharmaceutical Drug Manufacturers in Latvia
• Roberts Spručs, Anaesthesiologist, Reanimatologist