Coronavirus: Jadavpur University students developing an app to circulate genuine information

 A lot of misinformation on novel coronavirus is being spread, ranging from its origin to symptoms and means of transmission. This unnecessarily creates panic and confusion among the people. The infobank will dispel all wrong information,” the educator told a media house.

The idea to create infobank started at an all-India hackathon which was organized by the computer science department of the university where students had presented the concept at a time when the disease had just marked its footprint in India, he said.

“As the concept generated enthusiasm among the organizers and participants of the event, we asked the students to work on it and later make a prototype,” the teacher said.

The work on the prototype got delayed as the classes were suspended and hostels were shut due to the coronavirus outbreak, he added.

Under the supervision of the teachers, eight of the final year students from the computer science department are working on this project from their respective homes, the teacher said.

"Once the college starts and the laboratory reopens, it will get easy to get more real-time data for the application from hospitals treating COVID-19 patients and laboratories testing samples of people suspected to be infected with the disease,” the educator said.

Though the application will not detect fake news on COVID-19, it will help the user distinguish authentic information from misinformation as it will contain only genuine data, he added.

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