Welcome to Innovators of Tomorrow.
I'm your host, Wendy Boswell, here to bring you
the sights, sounds, and inspirational work
from developers and our innovator community
from around the globe.
Today, we are talking to Intel Software innovator, Peter Ma,
about his history with hackathons,
his incredible winning streak, and the projects that have
been inspired by these events.
Let's get this started.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Welcome to the show Peter, and thanks for joining us today.
So in addition to being an Intel Software innovator,
you're also a professional hackathon competitor.
Can you tell us about what got you into a hackathons
and how you manage to do so well at them?
So thanks for having me out, Wendy.
I think everything started as a kid,
that I've always been intrigued by new technologies.
My very first developer challenge
was sponsored by [INAUDIBLE] Conference.
So after winning that, I was able to give
a TEDtalk at TED Global 2010.
And that really inspired me to compete more and build out
more prototypes.
I think I do well in most hackathons
because I focus mostly on how technologies can
better people's lives than what technologies can do.
So all these projects that you come up with at hackathons--
do they come from real life ideas and problems
that you're trying to solve?
So most of the projects come from the problems
I have within daily life.
But hackathon provides a perfect opportunity to build it out
because I have an immediate audience to validate my idea,
as well as finding help.
OK so, that actually really makes a lot of sense.
And some of the bigger projects that
have come out of that thinking are things like Anti-snoozer,
Grindbit, Dr. Hazel.
Can you tell us a little bit more about these projects?
So Anti-snoozer is a drowsy detection system for people
who drive behind the wheel.
That was inspired by my aunt's accident
while my uncle was driving drowsy.
She ended up being permanently disabled.
That won the AT&T developer Summit hackathon.
And also, I've been given the chance
to show John Kerry the demo last year.
This year, I have open sourced the entire project,
so the community can take it further.
The Grindbit is a headband that detects teeth grinding.
I actually grind teeth, myself, so I try
to find a way to track that.
Vehicle rear vision was for my old car
because it didn't have a camera to look behind.
I used [INAUDIBLE] camera and [INAUDIBLE] radar
so it can assist me while I'm parking.
Through that project, I learned how
to detect dogs and cats while parking.
And I was able to use the exact same skill
to build Dr. Hazel, which is to detect melanoma and other skin
cancers.
So Dr. Hazel has actually really taken off.
Can you tell us a little bit more about that project?
So Dr. Hazel is an AI that can detect skin cancer.
My co-founder, Mike, and I recently
built that out in a hackathon.
We used [? Cafe ?] Intel [INAUDIBLE] Cloud,
and [INAUDIBLE] computing stick so we can detect
it real-time and offline.
After building it out, we were covered
on TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, and many other media
outlets.
Right after the coverage, we received hundreds of e-mails
where people asked me for beta requests
as well as sending us their photos of their moles
so we can improve our AI training.
Right now, we're talking to institutions and investors
to see how to take this forward.
That is really cool.
It's going to be interesting to see
where Dr. Hazel is going to go.
So with all of the ideas and projects that you
have at hackathons, there's got to be an interesting innovation
process around this.
So what is the hardest part of innovating for you?
So all startups, the ideas are the easiest and execution
is the hard work.
But the hardest part is still finding the product market fit.
I've built out hundreds of prototypes [INAUDIBLE] by now,
but very few of them actually gain people's interests.
When you show people the demo, they're all impressed.
But it's the follow up e-mails what really counts.
Yeah, I think there's a theme here
that all of your projects and ideas
are geared towards helping people in a positive way.
So what's the inspiration behind that?
So I really believe technology is here to advance humankind
and to reduce suffering.
As a developer, I think it's my duty
to utilize the best technologies to make a difference.
And hopefully along the way, I can
inspire others to do the same.
That's amazing.
Using technology to help others in a positive way,
that's really what it's all about.
Peter, thanks for coming on today
and sharing your work with us.
We really appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on, Wendy.
You can connect with Peter and follow along with his projects
at the link provided.
Also, we've included a link so that you
can learn more about the Intel Software innovator program.
That wraps up this installment of the show.
Be sure to like this video and subscribe to the Intel Software
YouTube channel to keep learning about the innovators
of tomorrow.
And on behalf of an amazing video crew,
thanks for tuning in.
And we'll see you next time.