Master’s students Lars van der Werf (Datascience & Entrepreneurship at JADS), Jasper Ebus, (Operations, Management & Logistics) and Lucas Peeters (Data Science in Engineering) co-founded start-up Stactics together. They came up with the idea for a notification platform after they saw what happened when PrullenbakVaccin (waste bin vaccine) was launched. Van der Werf: “We were notified of this cool initiative a week ago. By allowing people to get vaccinated with leftover vaccines at the end of the day, they prevent precious vaccine waste. A great solution, obviously. But after prullenbakvaccin.nl was launched, we saw that many people constantly kept refreshing the webpage. For people who are interested in a vaccine but who don’t want to do this non-stop, and to give everyone an equal chance, we decided to launch a notification service.”

No reserved vaccines

After explicit approval from PrullenbakVaccin to set up a public and regulated service based on its platform, Stactics officially launched the service VaccinRadar on Monday the 24th of May. Van der Werf: “This sends people a notification via Telegram when a waste bin vaccine becomes available in their neighborhood, meaning within a 20-kilometer radius. Next, the receiver of that notification can decide whether or not to travel to the vaccination site, where he or she has a chance to get a jab. That’s important to realize, because VaccinRadar doesn’t guarantee or reserve vaccines. The notification is only a tip.”

Have they themselves managed to get a waste bin vaccine at this point? Unfortunately not. Van der Werf: “A notification for the TU/e region was however sent numerous times already. The next time VaccinRadar sends a notification, we too will be in the running for a notification of a vaccine. The system sends notifications to randomly selected users in the region where a waste bin vaccine has become available, in order to prevent long queues and group formation. That is why we, too, politely wait our turn until we receive a notification.”

Do you also want to receive a notification when a waste bin vaccine becomes available? Register with VaccinRadar, free of charge. The platform is available for Android and iOS.

In the main photo from left to right: Jasper Ebus, Lucas Peeters and Lars van der Werf.