Digital Business Management Students Excel in Humber's Health Innovation Challenge
HLOs: 
In a showcase of talent and innovation, Digital Business Management (DBM) students, Arina Volkova and Maria Kusakina, emerged as victors in the Health Innovation Challenge 2024 (HIC 2024). The event, hosted by Humber’s Centre for Innovation in Health & Wellness (CIHW), provided a platform for students to tackle pressing healthcare challenges of diabetes prevention among young adults. With prediabetes and type 2 diabetes on the rise, the challenge sought to raise awareness and empower participants to take proactive steps in prevention.
HIC 2024 garnered enthusiastic participation from twenty-eight students in eight teams, from sixteen different academic programs across six different faculties at Humber who were eager to make a meaningful impact in healthcare.
The event highlighted the winning team’s pitches, which were innovative strategies designed to influence youth’s health behaviours around nutrition, lifestyle and understanding the risk of developing prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. The top three teams were recognized and awarded prizes and all students received a certificate of participation as Humber Health Innovators.
Finishing in first place was Youth vs. Diabetes from third-year DBM student Arina Volkova, and her teammates Pooja Mathur, Arina Volkova and Sarthak Arora. Their pitch was a platform of real-time narratives with actionable support based on community development and awareness among youth. Maria illustrated her skills in app prototype development, drawing inspiration from her coursework in e-Business Information Systems and Technology.
Collaborating with her teammates Joe Nicola, Leung Chun Wing and Johnattan Ramcharran, second-year DBM student Maria Kusakina secured the runner-up position. Their pitch, SugarStrike, was a gaming app for learning and engaging with elements such as rewards, quizzes and leaderboards. Utilizing tools like Figma and Canva, Maria crafted a high-fidelity prototype for the app, offering a solution to the challenge at hand.
The event was well-attended by over one hundred people including students, staff and faculty and highlighted the efficacy of interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-faculty cooperation in finding innovative solutions to address the impact of a chronic disease affecting the lives of many Canadians.
