Terri Griffith

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Technical Opportunities to Support COVID-19 Response

Terri Griffith

First -- do your part by staying apart… and washing your hands.

Then, we all need to do our part based on our skills and responsibilities. Here I’ve started a list of organizations looking for technical talent. Some of us are taking care of loved ones. Thank you! Others of us can do our part aligned with our technical expertise. While many technical workers are working from home and may be less affected by layoffs than people in other industries, TechCrunch reports the cancellation of many technical internships. Canceled internships are bad news for people early in their careers, but good news for other organizations that need access to technical talent in response to COVID-19.

I’ll update the links below as I come to know of others (or find a better central repository). Some are volunteer; others are paid. Some are specific to COVID-19 responses, while others are long-standing opportunities to support the public interest. Thank you for letting me know of opportunities I should add via the comment section below. If there are many, I’ll start an open Google Doc.


https://pixabay.com/photos/hands-wash-soap-foam-health-4934590/

  • Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence COVID-19 Collaboration Opportunities: [This is a global clearinghouse] “COVID-19 is having a substantial impact on our students and broader research community, such as job or internship offers that are being rescinded. At the same time, many new research projects and collaborations are being launched to address the pandemic. HAI would like to create a clearinghouse for COVID-19 research collaborations and other opportunities, such as RA positions, internships, or funding opportunities.”

  • U.S. Digital Response for COVID-19: “U.S. Digital Response offers help for governments during this crisis. COVID-19 is already overwhelming the data, digital, and operational capacities of government in a myriad of ways, and we have qualified people who can step in….If you have relevant experience (healthcare, data, engineering & product development, general management, operations, supply chain/procurement and more), can work autonomously through ambiguity, and are ready to jump into a high-intensity environment, fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.”

  • The Pandemic Response Challenge Program: National Research Council of Canada: “This program will build teams to address challenges requiring further research and development for solutions to meet COVID-19 related needs. The NRC will build these teams drawing on internal-to-government capacity and academic researchers who register using the button below to indicate their interest, and related areas of expertise and capabilities…. Researchers at Canadian and international universities, government departments, colleges, and highly innovative firms with relevant expertise can now register their interest to work with us on these challenges.”

  • New York State COVID-19 Technology SWAT Team: “New York State is launching technology driven products with leading global tech companies to accelerate and amplify our response to COVID-19. We are looking for impactful solutions and skilled tech employees to help. Individuals from leading global technology companies are being deployed across high-impact and urgent coronavirus response activities.”

  • COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge (Allen Institute for AI, Georgetown, NIH, et al.): “We are issuing a call to action to the world's artificial intelligence experts to develop text and data mining tools that can help the medical community develop answers to high priority scientific questions…. A list of our initial key questions can be found under the Tasks section of this dataset. These key scientific questions are drawn from the NASEM’s SCIED (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats) research topics and the World Health Organization’s R&D Blueprint for COVID-19.”

  • Aspen Tech Policy Hub: “accepting applications from technologists for projects that will help mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Winning teams will be allotted up to $15,000 over three months to execute their projects​​. We are looking for experienced technologist teams to propose projects to help mitigate the short and long-term effects of COVID-19.”

  • US Technology Transformation Services: “Looking for an opportunity to make a difference while leveraging your software development, product management, procurement, design, content, cloud migration, outreach, or operations skills? We’re looking for candidates passionate about our mission to improve the public’s experience with the government by helping agencies build, buy, and share technology that allows them to better serve the public.”

  • Code for America: “This job board is a collection of curated opportunities in public interest technology. We believe that people with design, product, analytical, and technical expertise can make a difference in how government works.”

  • The Brigade Network: “We're a national alliance of community organizers, developers, and designers that are putting technology to work in service of our local communities. We believe that government can work, for the people, by the people, in the digital age, if we all help.”

  • Help with COVID: “New or established projects helping with the COVID-19 crisis that need help. Volunteer yourself or create a new one.”

  • National Retail Federation: Job opportunities for workers displaced by COVID-19. Long list from major retailers and other. Some jobs are virtual and technical.

  • CARE: “CARE is one of the world's leading international humanitarian agencies working to help people achieve social and economic well being while being among the best in their fields. Our global presence and commitment to ending poverty make CARE an exciting and rewarding place to work. CARE's worldwide team uniquely apply their skill, knowledge and dedication to empower people in developing countries to bring lasting change to their own communities.”

  • Contribute to Open Source COVID-19 Testing Map: Related article in TechCrunch. 

  • Outschool: “Teach online and earn up to $40 USD per hour taught”

  • VolunteerMatch: “As the world leader in volunteerism, we feel a responsibility to unite our broader community--to use this moment to learn from one another, to grow, and to become stronger. We invite you to click "learn more" to visit our resource hub and explore the growing network of #COVID-19 and virtual volunteering opportunities for practical actions you can take today to support your community.” Broad range of asks, from sewing to coding, legal and advisory roles.

  • CyberVolunteers: “CV19 is a volunteer organisation setup to provide Cyber support for those in need. This was setup following the outbreak of COVID19 (Corona Virus) across the world.”

Hackathons (Deleted after date)

  • OpenIdeo: (Includes COVID-19 specific challenge) “Challenges are idea accelerators that connect people worldwide with tools, support, and each other to build real solutions for today's toughest problems. This is a great place to start if you’re getting to know OpenIDEO.”

  • 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge: “tackle the effects of COVID-19. Technology solutions can help reduce the impact this pandemic has on our daily lives and the world. We have the tools. You have the talent….We recognize the urgency to act — to identify, build, and deploy solutions — so we have created an accelerated timeline for the COVID-19 Call for Code track. The initial submission deadline is Monday, April 27 [submissions accepted through July 31], and we’ll announce the three top solutions on Tuesday, May 5, at the IBM Think Virtual Conference. Our goal is to work quickly to partner with those teams to get their innovations out in the field, while keeping the track open through July to continually source and showcase more solutions until we announce our global challenge winners in October.”

  • HackQuarantine: “A fully-online, people-focused hackathon bringing people together to use their skills to help combat the issues the world is facing with the COVID-19 pandemic….. By working with medical professionals and industry, we’ll provide the knowledge and tools to empower hackers to work towards around improving health, remote working and helping vulnerable populations.” Tracks sponsored by Twilio, Platter, and Capital One.

  • HackCovid19: “Join us for a global online hackathon hosted by Starfish. It’s imperative that we create solutions to address Coronavirus challenges and keep people as safe and healthy as possible! We’re looking to raise $20K for prizes, production, and organizational costs for Hack Covid-19. In addition, we’re looking for subject matter experts, donations of time, and appreciate support from all verticals - please reach out to us at hackcovid19@starfishcommunity.com.”

  • Online Hackathon Against COVID-19 (Care of Canada Pacific Foundation for Science, Technology & Innovation): Register by April 15. 48 hours. “We are looking for daring and innovative ideas that will help Canada show solidarity and emerge stronger from the current difficult situation caused by the coronavirus. In a 48h online Hackathon, we want to develop functional digital or analogue prototypes to counter the virus with tangible solutions. For this to work, the #TogetherVsVirus Hackathon needs a strong, diverse community. That means people with very different perspectives and abilities. You do NOT need to be a programmer or hacker to contribute.”

Tools

  • Salesforce Care - Free Rapid Response Solutions to Help Companies Navigate COVID-19: “Last week we launched our first Salesforce Care solution for Healthcare Systems, designed specifically for healthcare providers experiencing an influx of requests due to COVID-19. Today we are expanding Salesforce Care with additional free solutions to help companies in any industry stay connected to stakeholders, even when everyone is working remotely. The Salesforce Care solutions are available immediately, and can be set up very quickly.”

  • Open Data Watch: Links to COVID-19 datasets

  • IRIS.ai: “For anyone working on any aspect of research around COVID-19, whether on the epidemiology, virology, biology, psychology or anything else – and whether you are an academic or a concerned citizen – we hereby invite you to join Iris.ai, and your account will then be added to the premium access COVID-19 research group. Our only requirements are that your work is on the current pandemic, and that you allow your findings through Iris.ai to be shared publicly.”

...and others