Application for cohack (https://cohack.tw), a hackathon hosted by the Executive Yuan and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), has been officially launched. In keeping with the cohack spirit of “preventing epidemics with technology, we can help!”, NARLabs’ (administered by the Ministry of Science and Technology) National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC) has answered the call of duty and become a cohost of the contest. In addition to providing the computational, storage and web hosting resources needed for such an event, NCHC can offer assistance via the international supercomputer Taiwan Computing Cloud (TWCC), the SciDM data market platform, and its global cooperation with NVIDIA. With this wealth of assets, NCHC can afford both Taiwanese and American teams the operational power and big data they need to compete. By championing research and development, NCHC is able to facilitate and strengthen collaboration in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic.
With its primary goal of bringing together the collective knowledge of numerous professionals and participants, cohack aims to put forward a proposal for the application of precise epidemic-related data. By enacting this vision, participants can work together to make innovations in tracking, testing protocols, crisis communication, measures for protecting those vulnerable to infection and telehealth. The progress made in these fields will build a foundation for further improvements in joint Taiwan-U.S. efforts to fight the global epidemic. The competition is divided into six sections: managing community resources, making a smooth transition to the new post-pandemic world, protecting vulnerable groups, predicting future pandemic outbreaks with the lessons learned from COVID-19, supporting front-line staff and essential workers, and establishing proper data-driven risk communication.
As a provider of technological expertise, NCHC is doing its utmost to support cohack. Apart from offering its resources to participating teams and lowering the threshold for resource requirements, the center encourages collaboration between the public and private sectors in turning technological power into pandemic prevention capabilities. NCHC has a variety of technologies at its disposal, including the advanced AI supercomputer TWCC, the SciDM platform with its over 50 000 data markets, and its global partner NVIDIA’s Parabricks Genomics Analysis Toolkit. The center’s data market platform has also amassed information related to the features of COVID-19, such as globally released disease imagery, medical papers, details regarding available masks at National Health Insurance-contracted organizations (including location), and global confirmed case statistics. This data has been made available to like-minded organizations to utilize and add their own contributions. While the severity of the pandemic has decreased domestically, protecting and revitalizing Taiwan remains a priority for all within its borders; one which requires both a powerful group effort and advanced technology.
NCHC director general Shepherd Shi has emphasized that with the country’s investments in technological resources, it should be able to make a greater contribution. By putting TWCC – Taiwan’s world-class high-speed computational and big data platform – to use and facilitating international cooperation via local expertise, this center acts as a driving force behind the nation’s fight against COVID-19.
