Cancer Informatics Hackathon: Forging Solutions for Cancer Control

NAACCR invites you to this exciting 3-day software hackathon to develop innovative software tools and explore novel technological approaches to transform cancer control and prevention methods in a collaborative environment.

Our goals for the hackathon are:

• • Introduce informatics professionals and students to an exciting career in the rapidly evolving world of cancer control and data science
  • Recruit talented, motivated, innovative people into the cancer informatics workforce
  • Gather the brightest informatics minds in the Pittsburgh area for 3 days to hack out solutions to major cancer control problems fueled by great prizes, food, interesting projects, and fun collaborations

NAACCR will hold the hackathon in conjunction with its 2018 Annual NAACCR Conference, so you will have a great opportunity to network with a talented, dedicated, diverse group of professionals, united through the NAACCR organization to promote high-quality, population-based cancer registries across North America.

The deadline to register in May 15, 2018.

Teams will be invited to choose from several projects representing real-world challenges faced by cancer registries and cancer informatics professionals focused on cancer control. Project details will be described at the event, but some examples include:

• Develop a software application for generating synthetic cancer data sets
• Develop natural language processing methods to extract coded data items from clinical text
• Develop a mobile application for collecting cancer data, including complex staging information
• Develop a software application that can parse and display very large cancer data sets

After nearly 3 days of hacking, teams will present their solutions to a panel of NAACCR judges. Projects will be evaluated based on criteria including:

• creativity
• adherence to project guidelines
• potential for real-world application to cancer control efforts

Project presentations and judging will be held on June 11, 2018 at 5:30 pm at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, site of the 2018 NAACCR Annual Conference. All participants are encouraged to attend the final presentations and judging, however, only one team member is required to present for a team to be eligible for a hackathon prize.

All participants will also be invited to the NAACCR 2018 Annual Conference welcome reception at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown hotel starting at 7:00 pm, following presentations and judging, to meet and network with cancer informatics professionals and leaders in the NAACCR community.