Innovative Solutions Emerge from PennApps Hack-for-Resilience Competition

Virtual Hackathon Showcases Student Innovations

From September 11 to 13, the third annual Hack-for-Resilience competition (H4R) was hosted by Wharton Risk Center and the Insurance Information Institute’s (Triple-I) Resilience Accelerator as part of the PennAppsXXI hackathon. This year’s competition yielded an impressive array of powerful data, robotics, and AI solutions, as well as unique perspectives on catastrophe preparedness and mitigation from the next generation of innovators and leaders.

Gamification and Personal Experiences Inspire Hacks

Organized into two categories—Best Overall Hack for Resilience and Best Application of Insurtech—Hack-for-Resilience III was a virtual event conducted over 36 hours spanning 8:00 pm Friday night through 8:00 am Sunday morning. Students used Slack, Zoom, and HopIn digital collaboration platforms to recruit and select teammates, ideate, seek guidance from mentors, and produce and demonstrate hacks. This year’s H4R attracted 38 teams from as far away as British Columbia, Brasil, and India. Some interesting trends emerged: For 2020, several hacks used gamification—applying the principles and characteristics of video gaming to tasks and problem-solving—as a technique to teach and test catastrophe resilience. This year also saw numerous student innovators drawing inspiration from their own families’ recent natural disaster experiences.

Winning Hacks and Future Opportunities

A panel of judges that included Dr. Carolyn Kousky, Wharton Risk Center’s Executive Director, and Dr. Michel Leonard, the Triple-I’s Vice President and Senior Economist, selected first- and second-place winning hacks in both categories. They are: BEST APPLICATION OF INSURTECH: Winner: INSURA, Runner-up: CLAIM CART. BEST OVERALL HACK-FOR-RESILIENCE: Winner: AIR.LY, Runner-up: Saving Our Souls (S.O.S.). First place-winning team members will each receive a $200 Amazon gift card for their winning hacks, while the runners-up each will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. New for 2020 is an additional reward for first place winners, entry into a Resilience Accelerator Lightning Rounds ideas showcase, where teams will demo their winning hacks to a panel of insurance innovation leaders and investors.

The Wharton Risk Center and the Triple-I wish to again extend our thanks to all who contributed to making Hack-for-Resilience III and PennAppsXXI a rousing success!

By James Ballot, Senior Advisor, Strategic Communications, Triple-I