by Gabe Hua Starting at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 20th and ending at 5 p.m. the next day, eight Ball State student competed in the annual AT&T IoT Civic Hackathon. The event had teams developing Internet of Things devices to improve certain professions. This year’s profession was first responders. The Ball State group’s submission to the competition is called Seek. It is a system that tracks cards that students could carry around for use in emergency situations. This includes tracking students in the event of a school shooter or a fire. With a real-time view of every student inside or near the school building, first responders would be able to find students in danger to bring them to safety. Unfortunately, Seek did not make it to the finals of the competition, but several officials from the event were interested and pleased with the idea that they were developing. Footage from the kick-off presentation and the finals can be found be found here.
