Several University of Lynchburg students will compete in an Aging 2.0 Global Startup Search on Thursday in hopes of winning seed money for a healthcare app.
The Global Startup Search invites innovators to develop means of using technology to address challenges posed by an aging population and then pitch their ideas to a panel of local judges. The Richmond event winner will receive a small cash prize and move on to the national competition, featuring online voting, additional judging, and the chance for a $2,500 prize after another pitch event in October.
The LC team began working on an app idea during the second annual Caring for the Caregiver Hack sponsored by the Lindsay Institute for Innovations in Caregiving. There, the students met with a caregiver who explained his struggles to balance taking care of a loved one with his need for activities to rest and rejuvenate. Their app aims to help caregivers track the amount of time they spend rendering care versus exercising, resting, pursuing hobbies, and other activities that boost wellbeing.
Although they did not clinch a prize at the hackathon in March, the LC teammates were encouraged that the top prize went to a team with a similar idea presented later in the event. Then a person attending the event invited the group to pitch the app in the Aging 2.0 event.
Students on the team include Jeff McCullen ’16 and Roger Doles ’17 from computer science, J.P. Lopez ’14 and Christy McIver ’15 from the public health master’s program, Kevin Viken ’16 from the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, and Haley Crouch ’16 from psychology and health promotion. They are working with Dr. Charlotte Guynes, director of the Master of Public Health program, and Denise Scruggs, director of the Beard Center on Aging at University of Lynchburg.
LC also sent a team to the 2015 Caring for the Caregiver Hack. Read about that in University of Lynchburg Magazine.