Insights
January / February 2020

Celebrating the First Global ISPE Hackathon

LeAnna M. Pearson
Celebrating the First Global ISPE Hackathon

On 26–27 October 2019, the first Global Student & Young Professional Hackathon was held at the 2019 ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo. Thirty-six ISPE Young Professional and Student members came from around the world to participate in the two-day event that demonstrated innovative thinking, collaboration, and project management.

This event was designed by an amazing group of task team volunteers

Heather L. Bennett-Kelley
CQV Manager
ACCO Engineered Systems
Placeholder Person Graphic
John Clarke
Senior GMDP Inspector
MHRA
Wendy T. Haines, PhD, DABT, CQA
Director of Toxicology & Technical Services
PharmEng Technology
Alex Schramm
Automation Engineer
Banks Integration Group

About the Global Hackathon

Young Professionals and students were split into six multidisciplinary teams. All teams were given one of two Facility of the Future presentations paired with a unique challenge to solve. All teams were also given access to resources including Pharmaceutical Engineering Magazine and the ISPE Communities of Practice. At the end of the two days, each team pitched to a group of judges and industry leaders.

These were the topics tackled by each team:

  • Team 1: future expansion
  • Team 2: resiliency against environmental event
  • Team 3: supply chain
  • Team 4: future flexibility 
  • Team 5: environmental impact
  • Team 6: serialization and resource usage.

Team coaches

Dante Amatangelo
Executive Consultant
PQE US Inc.
Nissan Cohen
Owner
Biopharmaceutical Water Doc
Stephen Hall
Chief Process Engineer
Genesis AEC
Monique Sprueill
Director, GCP Quality Lead
Bristol Myers Squibb
Zen-Zen Yen
Head of Engineering At Supply Center Grenzach
Bayer AG

The ISPE Staff Membership Liaison: Debbie Kaufmann, Manager, Professional Communities.


All teams gave stellar presentations and demonstrated leadership, delegation, collaboration, and innovation with their presentations and problem-solving skills.


Judges

Michael A. Arnold, RPh
Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships & Past ISPE Board Chair
Pfizer Global Clinical Supplies
Heather L. Bennett-Kelley
CQV Manager
ACCO Engineered Systems
Timothy P. Howard, PE
Executive Leadership Coach
Eamon Judge
Executive Director - Global Engineering
Eli Lilly And Company
Kelly M. Keen
Vice President, Head of PMO Project Management
Celonic Ag
Antonio R. Moreira, PhD
Vice Provost, Academic Affairs
University of Maryland
Arthur D. Perez, PhD
Retired Director Information Governance and Management
Novartis Pharmaceuticals (retired)
Christian Wölbeling
Executive Industry Advisor
Körber Pharma Software GmbH

All teams gave stellar presentations and demonstrated leadership, delegation, collaboration, and innovation with their presentations and problem-solving skills. Because all teams did an outstanding job presenting creative, useful, and realistic solutions to difficult real-world challenges, the judges had a hard time deciding on the overall winner. Ultimately, Team 4, Project Mini Zoom, was selected for that honor.

Global ISPE Hackathon
This team included Sa-rah-Catherine Dannell, GEMU Valves, Inc.; Kathrine M. Parg, Keck Graduate Institute; Phuong (Sophie) Le, University of Minnesota; Matthew Ong, National University of Singapore; Elice Kitchen-McKinley, North Carolina State University; and Yemisi Mohammed, North Carolina Central University.

Congratulations to the Project Mini Zoom team and all participants!