Author: Jason Lowe

I am passionate about how organisations adopt IT quickly and sustainably to achieve a specific and measurable outcome. This thinking is supported through lean IT practices in operational support and project delivery, and adopting these practices with Oracle technologies by creating sustainable platforms. I'm also interested different perspectives and drivers - from enterprise to start-ups, academia to commercial to public sector, cost-sensitive (risk) to value-driven (reward) - all of which influences decisions that organisations make. I have a passion for community and have been called "a connector" - meeting new people that are trying to solve valuable and hard problems and connecting them with others that can validate and help realise their full potential. I've supported different organisations like TADHack and Hacking Health as a global organiser. I'm is a persistent blogger on medium.com and redthunder.blog and on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lowe-jason #CommunityMatters #ItTakesAVillage

Inspiration Series – Mobile Apollo

This inspiration series is to highlight the work of others from different circumstances.

This particular team were enrolled in Business Information Systems & Analytics Capstone (BISM3208) at University of Queensland where a part of the course was a hackathon and a team of mentors from Oracle Cloud Engineering provided the problem statement and guidance throughout the semester. The problem statement focused on the Sustainable Development Goals “SDGs” with the requirement to design a digital solution using Oracle Cloud.

Introducing Mobile Apollo – one of the finalists in the hackathon.

The team consisted of: Alfred Ong (here), Jennifer Poon (here), Morwenna Fisher (here), Shin Goh (here) and Vera Han (here).

The team focused on SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-Being – To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

The team identified (with their research):

Lack of mental health apps on the market which expand further than a journaling app.
Lack of integration between mental health apps and medical services/updates.
Lack of knowledge on alleviating mental illness through exercise/meditation.
Lack of having someone to hear them out and give them professional or practical advice that actually helps.
The prolonged use of mental health apps guiding them through their journey even when they’re feeling better.

The specific problem that they wanted to target was:

Targeting anxiety/depression in user-focused way that is unique a unique and has yet to emerge in the market, especially one that leverages on the latest technologies like AI and has all-in-one features.

The team settled on the value proposition of:

Developed an application that is portable for the ongoing progress and well-being of people with mental health concerns. We aim to partner with content creators, mental health clinics, governments and health campaigners to offer a wide range of assistance to users. We will include mental wellness information, guides to meditation/relaxing routines and pandemic related information to alleviate COVID-19 related mental health issues.

The myApollo solution targets to bridge the gap in the market between physical and psychological health by promoting character development, self-care routines and physical and mental health activities. The team focused on the following capabilities and outcomes.

An important outcome is to maintain the user’s interest and promote continual support whilst raising awareness about the importance of mental health even after the user has improved their mental well-being.
myApollo featured AI Buddy that users can talk to and allows users to be checked up on specifically as a non-medical support. This however does not replace a medical professional.
myApollo can consequently support users to better prepare themselves for pandemic related health concerns.
myApollo aims to boost productivity levels and output at work, potentially reducing suicide rates and the spread of mental health concerns.

Oracle Cloud featured as part of the myApollo solution. The team focused on Oracle Big Data Cloud Service providing the big data Hadoop environment for data management & auditing system.

The team aspires to see myApollo potentially be created and their vision to come to fruition; to be able to see people enjoy and connect with our app in a positive and productive manner; and to see more resources available for those struggling with all health conditions.

The team learnt from this course and from this experience. Some of the takeaways are:

The market research was important to build a better understanding and have a product driven approach based upon the needs of the users. A large highlight of the project was talking to individuals and hearing about their struggle with mental health and the types of tools and resources that have helped them overcome and/or cope in their mental health journey. This influenced what specific resources were included in the solution. Hearing firsthand accounts helped the team to connect and empathise with users; allowing them to see the real world impact that the application would have on individuals.
Through the multiple iterations, it allowed the team to create a more improved version of this project. The number of iterations performed was a big highlight that was noticeable over the course of the project to cater and adapt the solution to suit the needs and wants of our audience. The team remarked that this was the first project they had undertaken which their core solution had transformed greatly over multiple iterations.
Brainstorming ideas was important which led to the development of the idea. The diversity of opinions made for greater ideas and a deeper discussion which developed into a more thoughtful, comprehensive and well-informed solution. This also required embracing various (not all) suggestions from discussion between team members, lecturers, mentors from UQ Ventures and Oracle.
The use of different models such as value proposition model and business model canvas made the design thinking process easier.

Sometimes luck plays a part in life 🍀

This idea is inspirational and so the team. And as such, I want to connect you to them – whether it be to help understand the problem; to help continue building the solution; or hire them for your organisation.

I’m happy to introduce you to the team or any of the individuals. You can contact me at jason.lowe@oracle.com.

Alfred Ong

Bachelor of Business Management at the University of Queensland majoring in Human Resources and Business Information Systems. Graduating in June 2022.
Believes that technology is rapidly evolving and re-innovating is key.
Interested in IOT / Crypto / DeFi / Programming / Startups.
Enjoys Multicultural Cuisines, Horology & Automotives.

Jennifer Poon

Studying a dual degree of BE (Hons) and BBusMan at the University of Queensland, majoring in Software Engineering and Business Information Systems.
Interested in information security and emerging environmental technologies.
An avid baker with a lot of houseplants!

Morwenna Fisher

Bachelor of Business Management at the University of Queensland majoring in Human Resources and Business Information Systems. Graduating in June 2022.
Has a passion for people and for positive change.
Is driven to contribute to the world becoming a better place which I believe can be done through technology and ‘people’.

Shin Goh

Currently studying my last year at University of Queensland, Bachelor in Commerce majoring in Business Information System and Finance. Graduating in Nov 2022.
Main interest in drawing. I am the mascot and icon designer for the team!
Passion in expressing creativity through technology, having interest in data management as well.
I believe that having constant feedback (iterations) of ‘What Went Well’ and ‘Even Better If’, embracing different opinions, while expressing your own thoughts are what I believe – a key to having an effective and efficient team.

Vera Han

Bachelor of Business Management at the University of Queensland, majoring in Business Information Systems and Marketing.
Strong interest in technology and design, communications, creative ideation and innovation.
I create aesthetics and enjoy travelling.

Thank you Team Mobile Apollo.

OCI Arcade Gets A Revamp

Over the past couple of years, we’ve posted about the OCI Arcade. You can find the original article (here) and the repository (here). As part of the revamp, many things have changed and as such we’ve spent a little bit of time to make it better. Check out some of these new additions.

#FormulaAI Hackathon – On Show

Normally, as part of the review of a hackathon I would write something about the teams and the solutions. This time round I’m doing something a little different. With the three challenges being very specific, I want to share the github repositories and kaggle code that I could find.

#FormulaAI Hack – In Review

(With more to come with the winners being announced)

On Friday 18 March 03:00 PST | 06:00 EST | 10:00 GMT | 15:30 IST | 21:00 AEDT, Hackmakers will announce the winners of the #FormulaAI Hackathon 2022. It will be an exciting moment to conclude the event. Stay tuned at https://www.formulaaihack.com/ to watch the public live stream.

It’s been an immense learning experience for many people (including myself). Here’s a snapshot of some of those learnings when I look back in review. Please note that the content below does not contain any spoilers about winners and solutions delivered.

#BuildWithAI 2021 Team Tribute

#BuildWithAI Hackathon 2021 comes at a different point in time. Last year it was a little of an unknown. This is the second year that this event has been run and there was more of an understanding about what to expect and who might be participating.

As like last time, it is a privilege to write this article as there has been significant effort to get to these outcomes. If all I do is to highlight those that have been generous with their time, knowledge and willingness to participate, then it is a service that I will do every time. Here is a recount of some of the teams that participated at the #BuildWithAI Hackathon 2021 (and who were the winners).

This is a tribute.

The one ask that I do have for those is to connect. Connect with the problem; connect with the team and make this tribute more than an article but a way to #BuildWithAI.

#BuildWithAI 2021 – Another Step

Last weekend (from Friday 29th Oct to Tuesday 2nd Nov), was the #BuildWithAI Hackathon 2021 where participants, mentors, sponsors and organisers gathered together to solve real world challenges with AI. This event does not standalone. In a world full of change, this (from my perspective) started last year in the #BuildWithAI Hackathon 2020 and continued to build.

This article is about the event but the event itself is just “Another Step”.

#DaysOfArm (15 of X)

This is my 15th #DaysOfArm article that tracks some of the experiences that I’ve had so far. It’s been a little while since I’ve worked on this series however saying that … much of what I’ve been doing didn’t seem different from any other type of environment.

And just to recap from the first post (here) on June 12 2021.

It’s been just over 2 weeks since the launch of Ampere Arm deployed in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Check this article out to learn more (here). And it’s been about one week since I started looking into the new architecture and deployment, since I started provisioning the VM.Standard.A1.Flex Compute Shape on OCI and since I started migrating a specific application that has many different variations to it to test it all out.

This is my next learning where I looked into Let’s Encrypt to create a set of free certificates for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure A1.Flex VM Instances.

C# Serverless on OCI

I had a meeting the other day with an Oracle Partner and the discussion was about serverless solutions and Oracle Functions was introduced. And the natural question to ask was, “What is your preferred language?”.

They answered, “Mostly PHP. We also use C#”.

I had to think a little. And navigating to the fnproject.io (the open-source project that Oracle Functions is based upon), it was clear that C# was supported. Here’s a quick tour through that experience.

fnproject.io supported languages – golang, Java, javascript, python, ruby and C#.

A couple of quick points:

I didn’t need to install ASP.Net anywhere.
I’m not bound by Windows as the host operating system.

And if ASP.Net is your language of choice, you can also check out Deploy highly available ASP.Net applications on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure in the Oracle Architecture Center (here).

OCI Arcade Now Has A CRM

As each project comes along, there’s something new to add to the OCI Arcade. It started off with the game and Autonomous Database. And then grew into including Kafka, Docker Swarm, Serverless with the FN Project, Terraform, OAuth, Ansible, In-Memory Data Grid with Coherence-CE and more recently with Arm. This time round we’ve adding in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. Why? Up to now, users has been a simple identifier to denote the scores and the events in the game. Nothing more; nothing less. By adding in a CRM into the mix, we’ve opening up the understanding about our contacts and customers providing a richer experience for those coming to the arcade. And ultimately, from a space where we are build, experiment and try something out – adding user profiles opens up endless possibilities. Check out the rest of this about how it’s changed and some of the things we needed to do to make this happen.

Bastion Access For Minecraft

In the previous post, I did some work in managing Security Lists to protect the Minecraft Server. To read about that, head (here). Another method of connecting to the Minecraft Server is through a Bastion Host. As part of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, it is free to create a session through the Bastion Service (service limits do apply). Here’s a brief encounter of getting this up and going.