“We’re looking for around 50 students who want to participate in the hackathon on two Wednesday in May (17 and 24, Ed.) in interdisciplinary teams of four. The goal is to develop a self-help platform to increase social support in order to help people cope with loss and grief, based on a scientific foundation,” Ronckers said.

She’s looking for students from different study programs. “Apart from engineering students, sociology and psychology students are also welcome. We can also use students with a background in design, ICT or data science. Fontys students and other higher vocational education students can also sign up.”

Grief

No prior knowledge of grief is required. Grief expert Ellen Dreezens will give an introductory lecture on the first day at the movie theater in De Zwarte Doos. After a plenary brainstorming session, the groups will spread out across the second floor of the building to work out ideas. “Our aim is to create an app that will allow young bereaved people to strengthen connections with their own social circle.”

In the week in between, students can continue working on their plan so that they can refine and pitch it to the other participants on the second Wednesday. “It doesn’t have to be a fully fleshed-out app or website,” Ronckers states. However, there is an incentive to try to get as far as possible: there are two prizes. “The team with the best idea will get one thousand euros, to be spent freely. The runner-up team wins a field trip to Aryzon, an XR company in Ede that develops applications with extended reality for education.”

The foundation

The scientific foundation for the platform is being worked on simultaneously. Ronckers tells about four final projects of both bachelor’s and master’s students at HTI. “They’re investigating whether therapists would be interested in using an online platform and what social needs people have when grieving. Meanwhile, I’m personally doing a systematic literature review to create a model of what research on social support is still lacking.” The hackathon will also include a student pursuing two master’s degrees (HTI and Industrial Design). She wants to gain ideas for her final project.

Ronckers hopes the hackathon will result in a functioning prototype. If so, the research question will be the following: Can we help bereaved people with an app to strengthen their social support and ultimately alleviate the grieving process and reduce the likelihood of complicated grief?

Adolescents

Within the broad concept of grief, the consortium Happy Again! is now focusing specifically on grief in young adults. The grief following the loss of a job, a relationship or a pet will not be touched upon for now, nor will grief in older people.

There are students who have already lost a parent. Ronckers knows that some have difficulty finding a support group themselves. “When one parent has died, the other parent is also grieving, and they are not necessarily the best person to help you at that time. Friends usually haven’t experienced a similar loss and seeing a therapist is a very big step,” she says. “That’s why a self-help app that young people can get started with right away seems like a good idea. To learn how to grieve and how to ask your environment for help. But it should also include advice for people who are close to the bereaved. How can they offer help? We want to establish a connection.”

It is possible that Happy Again! will expand to a broader target group at a later point in time. For now, Ronckers and Schoenmakers will focus on turning this hackathon into a success. Those who want to sign up (individually or with teammates) can do so here.