Adam then gave some examples of civic tech created in
Chicago. These included, Foodborne Chicago, which tracks tweets using machine-learning that
identifies keywords like 'food-poison' in Chicago, and the CHI
311 app, which allows residents and businesses to
quickly and easily connect to city services.
Beth
Bond, head of city development in North America for Bosch, then
began the panel portion of the kick-off. The panel consisted of experts in each
of the four focus areas.
Rudy
Faust, project associate at the Shared-Use
Mobility Center, gave
participants his insight on public transit and intermodality.
David
Leopold, director of city solutions for City Tech Collaborative,
described the issues with the ‘modern’ curb. Unlike when it was first designed,
they see more action than ever, whether through ridesharing, eCommerce
delivery, or public transit, the curb wasn't designed with these services in
mind. He challenged participants to think of a new way to revolutionize the
curb.
Eric
Rask, principle research engineer at Argonne National Labs,
then discussed the various challenges and opportunities that come with
autonomous vehicles in urban settings. The panel concluded with insight
from Jerry Quandt, executive director of the Illinois Autonomous
Vehicles Association, on the challenges in tackling the 'last-mile'
problem. The last-mile problem refers to inefficiencies in getting a product
from a warehouse or distribution center to the final end-user.
With new information and insight from experts, students
were invited to start the hackathon. The first day had the students focusing on
their product name, brand identity, pitch practice and rough prototyping.
On
the second day, the seven groups had five minutes each to present their
solutions to the judges. In the end, there were three winners for best overall
solution, best public policy idea and best data process.