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Hack212: Urban Innovation
November 11, 2011
On a Saturday in early November, part of Google’s NYC office in Chelsea was transformed into a hacking metropolis. Thirty-six female students from the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, New York University, Columbia, Rutgers and SUNY Stony Brook came together for the very first Hack212: Urban Innovation, a 12-hour, NYC-focused, female-friendly hack event sponsored in partnership by Google and the City of New York. The event was aimed at female computer science students of all levels and hoped to highlight the many ways in which computer science and programming skills can be used to tackle social and community issues right here in New York City.
Hack212’s challenge, which was presented by a senior advisor from the City of New York’s
Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
, was to find a technological solution to the parking problem in New York City. As anyone who has every tried to park a car in NYC knows, it can be very difficult, time consuming, and sometimes even dangerous. We wanted to ask our participants: Is it possible to create a technological solution for parking in NYC that could (a) determine when and where there are available parking spots, (b) combine that information with other data (such as parking rules and regulations), and (c) convey this information to the driver in a way that is meaningful, safe and happens in real-time?
Armed with laptops, real sample parking data from the city, and loads of food, the women set out to see if they could improve the quality of life for millions of New York City drivers and visitors. Cas Halloway, New York’s Deputy Mayor for Operations, was also on hand to offer some inspiration to the hackers. During a lunchtime Q&A session, Cas conveyed New York City’s commitment to not only growing the tech industry locally, but to also implementing solutions such as the ones being explored at this event to solve some of the very real and very complex problems.
By the end of the 12 hours, each team presented their solution, along with working demos and mock-ups of what a future app might look like. Both the students and the Google engineers who helped judge the contest were impressed with the final product. “I was most impressed with the fearlessness and creativity of the participants, and how much they learned over the course of the day,” commented Greg Russell, a software engineer in Google’s NYC office who acted as a judge. “It was a lot of fun, and a great way to learn about interesting ways to solve problems,” said UPenn student Trisha Kothari. “I liked that the focus of the hackathon was very well-defined. This let us explore one topic really well, rather than an extremely broad and vague ‘build what you feel like’ hackathon.”
“There are a lot of stereotypes out there about what a computer science student looks like, and what it means to be a software engineer,” explains Allison Roarty, a member of the university programs team at Google. “Historically, we see a lot of talented female CS students deciding to switch majors out of computer science because they don’t see a place for themselves within that stereotype. We want to show those women that there are lots of different ways to be a computer scientist and to use the skills you get from a degree in CS.”
Take a look at more photos from Hack212 on the
Google Students page
on Google+.
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs
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