Mobile4D

Crowdsourced Humanitarian Aid Systems

About the Project

Mobile4D is a student project at the University of Bremen focused on developing humanitarian aid systems for countries in Southeast Asia.

The project started on October 26th, 2012 with the development of a disaster alerting system, which could be used to send and receive information about natural disasters in Laos.


After the implementation of the system for Laos a similar system was built for use in Thailand. The same concepts that were developed previously were re-tailored for the circumstances of Thailand.

Additionally, another app focused on tracking Malaria was developed. The goal of this project was to provide a technical base for a study to understand the spread of Malaria in Thailand's eastern regions located near the Myanmar border.


In a following cycle of the project a similar system was built for the use in Thailand. The same concepts that were developed previously to support disaster relief in Laos were re-tailored for the circumstances of Thailand.


Additionally, another app focused on tracking Malaria was developed. The goal of this project was to provide a technical base for a study to understand the spread of Malaria in Thailand's eastern regions located near the Myanmar border.


In 2019/2020, two new projects were created. One of them focuses on Malaria (Mosquito Sounds) the other on Dengue fever (Dengue Diagnosis).


Dengue fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the dengue virus. Humans get infected when bitten by female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry the virus. Official ratings by the WHO estimate that there are between 284 and 528 Mio. cases every year. A nationwide treatment is arduous to accomplish. A vaccine is currently in its testing phase but will be very expensive to use.

Aided by Artificial Intelligence developed in Thailand, the Dengue Diagnosis app will help to accelerate a diagnosis and decrease its cost.


Mosquito Sounds works on identifying mosquitoes by species, sex and possible infection status with diseases such as Malaria or Dengue Fever, since locating and isolating areas with infected mosquitoes has the potential to greatly reduce the spreading of aforementioned diseases.

In 2020/2021 the students of the master project and a student working on her bachelor thesis implemented another two projects: The Dengue Diagnosis Dashboard and the Healthcare Workers app.


The Dashboard focuses on simplifying tasks and workflows in the hospital by digitizing tasks that were otherwise carried out with pen and paper. Examples of these tasks are: checking into the hospital, graphing patient’s vital data and forwarding addresses of the patient to local authorities.


The Healthcare Workers app also aims to simplify workflows and tasks. Addresses that patients with dengue fever visit are forwarded to local health centers. There the healthcare workers carry out different tasks to prevent others from being infected in the area.


In the following year, students of the bachelor project continued the work on the Diagnosis app, the Dashboard and the Healthcare Workers app. Also, two new projects were started: ePro and TM Vax. Both projects consist of two systems working with each other: a web-based dashboard and an app.


ePro uses the dashboard to create fully customizable surveys that can be started at a scheduled timeframe. In the app, a user is notified that they need to complete the survey. The aim of this system is to carry out medical surveys more easily.


TM Vax offers a system to digitize vaccinations. The dashboard is used to create patient accounts with which users of the app can then log in. Once logged in, the user can scan QR codes when they get vaccinated and thus track their vaccination status.


One day all the systems described above will hopefully help healthcare workers in rural areas, medical staff as well as research regarding viral diseases in general. We are cooperating with BIOPHICS, the faculty for tropical medicine, the Mahidol University and the Hospital for tropical diseases in Bangkok.


Mobile4D is carried out as a teaching project within the International Lab for Local Capacity Building (Capacity Lab). The Capacity Lab aims at reducing poverty in developing countries by researching into methods, algorithms and systems to support capacity building at a local level.


Video of the bachelor's project 19/20 in German:



Participants

The following people are taking part in the master's project of 2022/23:

  • Bachelor's 23/24
  • Abdulrahman Taha
  • Amir Sutkovic
  • Anil Karabulut
  • Artur Barseghyan
  • Charline Wolken
  • Jane-Loreen Krey
  • Jannes Balscheit
  • Kamil Uyanik
  • Kasim Ali Shah
  • Marc-Anton Schnorr
  • Nicolas Scheschonka
  • Oemer Faruk Bueyuekbas
  • Oguzhan Aydin
  • Pascual Schulten
  • Tim Koehne
  • Yaroslav Purgin



Alumni

The following people took part in the former bachelor's and master's projects:

  • Master 22/23
  • Aljoscha Grebe
  • Benjamin Rehnisch
  • Bent Focken
  • Bernhard von Rotenhan
  • Christian Gazke
  • Constantin Berg
  • Habib Mergan
  • Jennifer Horstmann
  • Kevin Ross
  • Leonard Tesar
  • Malte Borgwardt
  • Maximilian Wick
  • Tarek Soliman
  • Vanissa Noel Temgoua Djiofack

  • Bachelor 21/22
  • Martin Asmus
  • Adrian Becker
  • Philias Borrmann
  • Henri Bührmann
  • Hauke Düßmann
  • Hannes Herzke
  • Sirwan Kermanji
  • Adrian Lindloff
  • Leonie Mommer
  • Michel Ruge
  • Tammo Steffens
  • Leonard Tesar
  • Jonas Zoellner

  • Master 20/21
  • Ainizhaer Aierken
  • Roman Gressler
  • Alexander Herbst
  • Marcel Hofgesang
  • Michel Krause
  • Alireza Mahdavi
  • Marcel Mehrdadi Gargari
  • Youssef Nahas
  • Lars Panter
  • Niclas Prock
  • Martin Schorfmann
  • Lukas Tiefensee
  • Fabian Wetjen

  • Bachelor 19/20
  • Vincent Bahro
  • Benny Berkhausen
  • Deniz Efe
  • Mirko Garlich
  • Marcel Hofgesang
  • Jennifer Horstmann
  • Maiko Hübinger
  • Amari Khelil Mouhssin
  • Toni Aleksandrov Kozarev
  • Kien Luc Vinh
  • Jacky Philipp Mach
  • Habib Mergan
  • Anh Duc Nguyen
  • Niclas Peltz
  • Niclas Prock
  • Dominik Roth
  • Lucas Schmidt
  • Mahmoud Siai
  • Jordi Sögtrop
  • Romeo Tagne Kengne

  • Master 18/19
  • Jan-Niclas de Vries
  • Mirco Jüstel
  • Tugce Karakus
  • Anil Olgun
  • Marcel Schäfer
  • Antonia Schwedhelm
  • Florian Vögtle
  • Leif Ole Zuttermeister

  • Bachelor 17/18
  • Aydar Mehmet
  • Susanne Bös
  • Luis Brandt
  • Jan-Niclas de Vries
  • Lukas Deckner
  • Tabea Eggers
  • Oliver Hilbert
  • Andreas Kimmig
  • Maik Daniel Klause
  • Guido Knoll
  • Jan-Phillip Kolsen
  • Fabian Linsel
  • Cedric Michael
  • Yaël Myriam Richter-Symanek
  • Tjorben Schiller
  • Erik Schmitt
  • Tim Soller
  • Florian Vögtle
  • Leif Ole Zuttermeister

  • Master 16/17
  • Jan von Bargen
  • Jan Bartkowski
  • Michael Cyl
  • Marcel Dechert
  • Tobias Haker
  • Fabian Hesse
  • Igor Kazhdan
  • Sven Daniel Mönig
  • Carsten Schipke
  • Tino Wahler
  • Saeed Zahedi

The Projects

The following gives a brief overview of the projects of mobile4D as of 2021:



Dengue Diagnosis Logo

Flutter-based Android App

The Dengue Diagnosis App aims to support the detection and diagnosis of dengue fever via a mobile application to be used by medical personnel. The application implements a new diagnostics approach by the Mahidol University in Thailand using bayes net technology. Doctors in affected regions can use this application to input a patient's symptoms and receive a probability indicating the patient's likelihood of having dengue. The disease currently has no vaccine and is notoriously hard to diagnose, making the Dengue Diagnosis App an important support tool in the fight against dengue fever. A team of three students from the University of Bremen is currently working on the app, with future student groups maintaining the app after the current project phase reaches its end. There are also two new versions of the app in the works: one being a research version dedicated to collect the necessary data to further improve the diagnosis via the bayes net technology and a version for everyone to quickly get a diagnosis without the need for medical professionals.




Dengue Dashboard

Vue.js based Web App

The Dengue Dashboard provides the same features as the Dengue Diagnosis App, only in a website format. This is because it is intended to be used in a hospital environment, where desktop computers are commonly used, so that the medical personnel can benefit from the bigger form factor. Furthermore, the dashboard expands on the functionality of the app by providing means to monitor admitted patients and intuitively chart their data to recognise patterns and patients with a higher risk factor. This is currently done manually on sheets of paper which limits the medical personnel in their productivity and is more prone to errors.




Healthcare Workers

Flutter-based Android App

The Healthcare Workers app, or in short HCW, is a cooperation between the student project Mobile4D and the health offices in Thailand. The goal is to support Thailand in sustainable development by fighting and containing the dengue virus. If a dengue case is diagnosed in the hospital it can be added to the app automatically and is transferred to a corresponding healthcare worker. This worker now sees a fitting deadline and an area where he needs to go to do a specific task to contain the virus. When multiple cases appear in the same area the app will help to organize the necessary actions.




TM-Vax

Flutter-based Android App and Vue.js based Web App

The new project "TM Vax" aims to digitalise the process of vaccinating. It ranges from receiving a vaccination request to registering it in an internal database and then finally landing on a patient's cell phone who can use the associated app as a digital vaccination card. A new vaccination is first recorded by staff using the TM Vax Dashboard. All patients of the hospital are stored there, along with their vaccinations, occurring side effects and some relevant medical information that could pose a risk to the patient's health. Patients can log themselves and their relatives into the app using a generated QR code. They are able to view all of their vaccinations recorded in the hospital as well as personal data. Additionally, new, provisional vaccinations can be created and optionally sent to the dashboard for confirmation.




ePro

Flutter-based Android App and Vue.js based Web App

The epro system is part of the project since 2021. It is thought to be used to create and conduct medical studies primarily in the healthcare sector. Initialized was the project by a suggestion from our cooperation partners in Thailand. It consists of a web app used by the study personnel and a mobile app for participants. Creation and maintenance of studies, related surveys as well as the management of participants is done by the personnel via web app. Different roles for users allow conscientious handling of the system and its functions. While conducting a study, surveys can be created from a variety of question types which can be customized to fit specific needs. It is possible to manually adjust the number of surveys participants shall receive or the period in which they will be send. Also it is possible to set times for notifications to automatically remind participants to answer their current survey. Participants can use the mobile app to answer the surveys flexible at any time and location. Those answers are saved in the common database and can be exported as csv file via the web app for further evaluation e.g. in statistics software.




mobile4D Thailand Logo

Disaster Alerting App (Thailand)

Flutter-based Android App and Webinterface

The Mobile4DTI project is a cooperation between the Mobile4D student project at University of Bremen and the Mahidol Universityof Thailand. The project aims to provide a solution for the communication between citizens and relief workers in disaster situations. Therefore, we are developing an application that allows people to send emergency reports about various situations from their phones to an emergency central. This includes emergencies like famine, snake bites, electrified water, the need for medical supplies or people being trapped. Allowing people to establish direct contact with officials in order to request help grants fast civil protection and supports sending help as soon as possible. The emergency central can swiftly react to incoming reports across the country, all while staying in touch with affected individuals via an instant messaging chat. When entering detail for a report, people can choose to include their coordinates retrieved by their phone and frequently update it, thus allowing relief workers to effortlessly find affected people on site.




Mosquito Sound

Research

One of the subprojects of Mobile4D, Mosquito Sounds, is working on identifying mosquitoes by species, sex, and possible infection status with diseases, such as Malaria or Dengue-Fever, on the basis of sound samples. In collaboration with the other subprojects, it aims at reducing the spreading of aforementioned diseases. Since humans, due to their mobility, have been identified as playing a key role in the spreading, locating and isolating areas with infected mosquitoes has the potential to greatly reduce further outbreaks.




Tracking Map

Malaria Tracking

Web application

The Tracking4D-App, or also called Myanmar-Tracking4D-App is a coopertation between the students project Mobile4D at University of Bremen and the Mahidol University/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Goal of the project is to provide a technical base for a study to understand the spread of Malaria at Thailands eastern regions located near the boarder shared with Myanmar. Volunteers will be tracked by our app to understand how people infect with Malaria disease differentiate in Thailand and Myanmar and also to understand, how it affects people in different regions of Thailand.

Press Articles

  1. Mit Piktogrammen vor Hochwasser warnen weser-kurier.de (2017)
  2. Hilfe in der Katastrophe: Studierende entwickeln Frühwarnsystem uni-bremen.de (2017)
  3. Katastrophenwarnsystem aus Bremen vor Pilotprojekt in Südostasien bremen.de (2014)
  4. Mobile4D im Jahrbuch der Universität Bremen uni-bremen.de (english version) (2014)
  5. Bremer Informatikstudierende testen in Laos das Katastrophenwarnsystem Mobile4D uni-bremen.de (07.05.13)
  6. Warnung vor Katastrophen kreiszeitung.de (27.04.13)
  7. Video reports: weser-kurier.de bremen-center.tv
  8. Praxistest fü "Mobile4D": Bremer Informatikstudierende erproben ihr entwickeltes mobiles Katastrophenwarnsystem in Laos uni-bremen.de (09.04.13)
  9. Studierende entwickeln Katastrophenwarnsystem: Praxistest für "Mobile4D" in Laos idw-online.de (09.04.13)
  10. Forschung in Bremen: Was sich Wissenschaftler für 2013 vorgenommen haben Weser Kurier (10.02.13)
  11. Mobile4D: Bremer Informatikstudierende entwickeln mobiles Katastrophenwarnsystem mit Ministeriumsvertretern aus Laos uni-bremen.de (21.11.12)

Contact

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Mobile4D
c/o Cognitive Systems
P.O. Box 330440
28334 Bremen
mobile4d@mailman.zfn.uni-bremen.de


Legal Notice


Projekt Mobile4D von Capacity Lab
Dr. Thomas Barkowsky
Capacity Lab
c/o Cognitive Systems
University of Bremen
Cartesium 3.45
P.O. Box 330 440




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28359 Bremen
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Tel.: +49 421 218 64233
E-Mail: barkowsky@uni-bremen.de
Website: http://www.capacitylab.org/
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