App connecting seniors to community a winner at InnovateFest contest

Like many seniors, Mr Ryan Lai's grandmother lives alone and is digitally illiterate.

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"My grandmother often feels lonely as she spends most of her weekdays by herself as (my family and I) are studying or working," the 25-year-old computing science student said.

"Also, she doesn't know how to look for apps on her mobile phone because she's not tech-savvy at all. When I tell her to message me on WhatsApp, I tell her to click on the 'green button' instead of using the word 'WhatsApp'."

This is one of the reasons Mr Lai and his team from the Singapore Institute of Technology (University of Glasgow Singapore) developed an app for seniors, which lets them sign up for activities organised by active ageing centres and community centres near their homes.

Dubbed JioTogether, the app will help seniors who currently rely on word of mouth to find out about such activities and who typically have to make their way down to these centres to register their interest.

The app will also allow seniors to volunteer and interact with other participants of such activities. Organisations such as Lions Befrienders, active ageing centres and community centres can promote their activities by uploading pictures of their brochures or posters onto the app, which will then extract relevant details such as the time and venue, and add the activities to a list on the app.

Ten teams from local polytechnics and universities participated in Dell Technologies' InnovateFest competition held here on Sept 26.