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Two School of Public Policy and Administration students have been recognized by Open Data Delaware for their work in the 2018 Open Data Challenge (ODC18).
Doctoral Eli Turkel and graduate student Betsey Suchanic, both public administration fellows at the Institute for Public Administration, won a $1,000 grant from Open Data Delaware for their Open Data Challenge submission, MobiliDE. MobiliDE allows qualified users to make paratransit arrangements quickly on a phone app similar to the popular rideshare platform Uber. The grant awarded to Turkel, Suchanic, and their teammate, Randy Neil, is intended to serve as a further investment in the project, according to Open Data Delaware.
Open Data Delaware, an organization focused on interacting with data to make a positive change for local Delaware communities, partnered with the Delaware Department of State's Government information Center to present this year's Open Data Challenge. ODC18 consisted of a series of events and workshops that allowed participants to review and analyze information hosted on the state's Open Data Portal, then design new apps, websites, or
programs that would put the data to good use. Teams with the best ideas
and the most promising prototypes then received eligible for grant funding to
allow them to continue their work.
This year, each team was charged with using open data to solve accessibility issues affecting DelDOT and the states Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Issues ranged from making transportation more accessible for people
with disabilities to making tourism within the state easier for
out-of-towners.
Open data is considered a catch-all term referring to public information made avaialble by governments and companies in an easy to access format that can be used to create applications and additional tools.
Originally published by Technical.ly Delaware. Article by Holly Quinn. Photo courtesy of Ken Grant.
