Southern University Students Win DevDays Cancer Care and Prevention Challenge

Southern University Students Win DevDays Cancer Care and Prevention Challenge

Competing in DevDays for the first time, the team won with Tomorrow, a platform that helps patients protect their emotional well-being and sense of identity during treatment

When a Southern University business professor forwarded Jha'Hannah Pink an email about DevDays, the timing was personal. Pink, an agribusiness major, had recently lost her uncle to cancer. He became the motivation behind Tomorrow, the cancer support platform she and her teammates built during the 10-week competition.

Tomorrow won first place in the DevDays Cancer Care and Prevention Challenge in Southern University's first time competing in DevDays. The competition is a partnership between Nexus Louisiana and Ochsner Health that asked Louisiana college students to build technology to improve the cancer care experience for patients, caregivers and healthcare teams.

"Tomorrow is about giving patients a reason to look forward to tomorrow," Pink said. "A lot of times, when you have all those treatments and appointments, you forget what you're living for and who you're living for. Our app is centered around helping patients remember that and helping them fight for tomorrow."

Pink and her teammates, Thomas Reid and Jalayah Jones, study business and nursing. They earned $6,000 for the win.

A platform built around quality of life

Tomorrow is designed to work alongside hospital care. It helps patients keep their sense of identity, look after their emotional well-being and stay connected to the people and experiences that matter most during treatment.

"I think healthcare does a good job at keeping them alive, but who is helping them harness that life inside of them, keep them positive, keep them happy?" Pink said.

Patients get a personal profile where they can track their emotional wellness with hopeScore. They also receive encouraging reminders through tomorrowSpark and have access to an appointment calendar and AI-powered guidance. The platform includes Living Proof, a collection of survivor stories, along with wellness resources, cancer news and research, and a Legacy Vault where patients can save memories and life stories.

The goal is to put quality of life alongside treatment, so patients remember not only what they are fighting against, but what they are fighting for.

Building the app was the team's biggest hurdle.

"We are not in computer science, so it was difficult trying to find a platform that incorporated everything that I wanted to have in it," Pink said.

For Pink, the most valuable part of the experience was finally presenting the team's work to the judges.

"I feel relieved. I'm happy," she said. "I think the judges and everyone kind of saw the vision."

Multiple approaches to one challenge

About 50 students from nine colleges and universities applied to compete in the challenge. Ten teams advanced to the finals, representing Southern University, Southeastern Louisiana University, the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the University of Louisiana at Monroe and Louisiana Tech University.

Finalist teams presented their prototypes on Sept. 25 at Nexus Louisiana's Baton Rouge headquarters to a panel of healthcare, technology and business leaders. They competed for a share of $10,000 in cash prizes.

Second place and $3,000 went to OncoReady from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Computer science and engineering students Pankaj Bhatta, Jeevan Parajuli and Swabhiman Paudel developed a prototype to help care teams identify and address clinical and logistical barriers before a patient's scheduled cancer treatment.

Third place and $1,000 went to Cancer Krewe from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Computer science and engineering students Kaitlyn Damare, Ky Smith and Amaya Erhabor built a caregiver and treatment coordination web app that helps patients and their support circles organize appointments, delegate tasks and understand medical information.

"Each team approached the same problem differently, showing the many ways technology can support patients and families," said Tony Zanders, president and CEO of Nexus Louisiana. "Tomorrow shows what can happen when students bring their personal experiences and skills to a real challenge. This is not just a project. There are real lives impacted by this technology."

Ten weeks of development

Over 10 weeks, student teams developed solutions focused on patient navigation, access to care, communication, remote monitoring and support. Judges evaluated each solution on its technical complexity, potential to scale and novelty.

The judges were Dianne Teal, regional chief nursing director at Ochsner Health; Craig Davis, founder and CEO of Catalyze Labs; Trivia Frazier, biotech founder and CEO of Obatala Sciences; and Dr. Patrick Quinlan, founder and CEO of Hippo Technologies and former CEO of Ochsner Health.

Ochsner Health brought clinical expertise and leadership to the challenge through Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center.

"We have so many big problems to solve, and we're not going to solve them by continuing to do what we've always done," Teal said. "Having the fresh eyes of young people on how we're going to solve these things is so critical."

The finals also featured remarks from Scott Mabry, chief operating officer of Ochsner Health Capital Region, and Eli Brodsky, deputy director of the Louisiana Department of Health. Brodsky discussed the state's investments to improve healthcare access in rural communities, including a new fund to support companies testing and scaling direct-to-patient technologies in rural Louisiana.

Beyond the competition

For Reid, DevDays turned into more than a shot at a cash prize.

"I'm going to be honest, what got me into this project was the prize money," Reid said. "But hearing from the judges how we can take this from just a pitch, an idea, and really turn it into a business has me thinking way past this competition. We can actually make a real startup. I'm really thankful to Nexus for broadening our horizons and giving us an opportunity to do something we wouldn't have done without them."

The team now plans to work toward bringing Tomorrow to market. As DevDays winners, they also automatically advance to the Nexus Technology Cup in December.

DevDays is Nexus Louisiana's innovation competition that connects Louisiana college students with industry partners seeking new approaches to real operational and community challenges. Participants build functional solutions, receive expert feedback and present their work to potential employers, partners and investors. The Cancer Care and Prevention Challenge continues a partnership between Nexus Louisiana and Ochsner Health that previously challenged students to improve adolescent ACL injury prevention and recovery.

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