Category Archives: Kelly P.

January 19, 2012 · 4:38 pm

Want to Win $10,000 and Save Lives by Using Your Cell Phone?

Author: Kelly Porter O’Connor

Thanks to the MyHeartMap Challenge team, an interdisciplinary group of Penn researchers, behind this six week long crowd-sourcing contest — now you can!

Led by Raina Merchant, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and senior fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Eric Stone, C’99, WG’07,  The My HeartMap Challenge team has developed a free app you can install on your mobile phone.

Participants will take photos and geotag these life-saving Automated External Defibrillator (AED) devices to collect data for an updated app linking locations of all public AEDs in the city with a person’s GPS coordinates to help them locate the nearest AED during an emergency.

The contest is just a first step in what the Penn team hopes will grow to become a nationwide, crowd-sourced AED registry project that will put the lifesaving devices in the hands of anyone, anywhere, anytime.  The project is modeled after the DARPA Network Challenge, a crowd-sourcing experiment in which social media users raced to be the first to submit the locations of 10 moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations throughout the United States.

The stakes for the MyHeartMap Challenge are high: the person or team who finds the most AEDs during the contest will win $10,000, and their efforts could save lives in the critical minutes following cardiac arrest.  Many of you have probably read about recent incidents in Philadelphia where the use of an AED device has saved someone’s life.

AEDs are located all around us in plain sight –  at work, the grocery store, your Septa stop…All you have to do to participate is register online, download the app and start tagging. The contest and app launch at the end of January. With the launch close at hand, I encourage you to form a team to help kick-start this Penn based challenge, save lives and possibly win a huge chunk of change!

Check out the project’s website or friend them on Facebook to receive contest clues and learn more about the challenge and or find out more information about the value of these life-saving devices — used to restore cardiac arrest victims’ hearts to their normal rhythm.

Leave a comment

Filed under Campus Life, Kelly P., Videos

Tagged as ,

November 18, 2011 · 4:10 pm

Morris Arboretum Brunch During Homecoming Weekend

Author: Kelly Porter O’Connor

There was no better way to wind down Homecoming than with a brunch and tour of the Morris Arboretum. It was a beautiful day to stroll the grounds of the Arboretum with the fall foliage at its peak. If you have never been, I highly suggest you make your way out there or plan to attend next year’s brunch and tour!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these photos taken during the event.

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Homecoming Weekend featuring arts and culture, Kelly P.

Tagged as

June 30, 2011 · 3:33 pm

Counting the Days

Author: Kelly Porter O’Connor

Just this past week, I toured the 24 acre plot of land, soon to be Penn Park.  All I have to say is WOW!  I had viewed renderings and photos online, passed by the site while crossing the Walnut Street bridge, noted progress while sitting in traffic on the Schuylkill; but it wasn’t until I donned a hard hat and walked among the bulldozers and backhoes that I was able to realize the incredible scale of Penn Park.  Just imagine eight College Greens lined up in one area.  There are three large multi-purpose fields, including a softball stadium with built in seating for 200 fans, 12 tennis courts, and open fields throughout the park.

In addition to all these beautiful new green spaces coming to campus, there is a stunning skyline of Philadelphia that can only be viewed from the vantage point of Penn Park.  Soon to be an amazing addition to the University of Pennsylvania campus and the Philadelphia community!  I can’t wait to begin planning events there…

My colleague in event planning, ready to take on the park

1 Comment

Filed under Campus Life, Kelly P.

Tagged as

May 26, 2011 · 1:17 pm

The Lull before September

After all the hustle and bustle of Alumni Weekend and Commencement, there is now an awkward silence amidst the campus. The first few weeks of May consisted of constant noise and excitement. There were massive tents and stages all over campus that took weeks to construct. Students were scurrying around campus like mice with the move out carts. (You only have an hour with the cart, so students were packing their entire dorm room into one trip!) Then of course the endless number of grads getting their photo taken along Locust walk. Campus was packed and amped with energy.

Just picture – a few weekends ago, there were over 4,000 students, alumni and families on campus enjoying the beautiful scenery. Everyone was enjoying each others company, and reminiscing about how things used to be, and what campus used to look like. Needless to say, the campus was flooded with red and blue.

Now, not a single flyer on the message board – just some rusty staples and paper scraps. Until September!

No fliers on the message board on campus.

Though there is a plus – much shorter lines at your favorite food trucks and lunch spots!

Leave a comment

Filed under Campus Life, Kelly P.

April 21, 2011 · 2:44 pm

Project 1/30 – April

Author: Kelly Porter O’Connor

Some of you may have heard of Project 365 – where you take one photo a day to document your life. Well, this is project 1/30 where I will take a photo (or two) to document one day a month at Penn.

With a little thing called Alumni Weekend around the corner, the majority of my month is spent in the good old Franklin Building, which is indeed not the most desired place to spend your warm spring days! At the first sign of a sunny day I somehow find my way to Locust Walk. Yesterday just happened to be that day. Featured here is the image I selected to represent April. What does it mean to you?

Spring on Locust Walk

For me, this image represents one of the most beautiful days, when campus really comes alive. Daffodils are in full bloom, the sun is shining and Locust Walk is flooded with the bustle of our Penn community. The prayer tent is up, observing this week’s holidays, student-led tours for potential freshman are at every corner, folks are out on the Green enjoying the sun shining through the trees, and, of course, we get our first sightings of flip flops (and for some, the lack thereof…)!

The first true sign of spring: flip-flops

2 Comments

Filed under Campus Fashion, Campus Life, Kelly P., Project 1/30