Nearly 50 developers and subject matter experts convened in Philadelphia at Drexel University’s Computer Science labs this morning to kick off their second RHoK event in 7 months. 

Their portfolio of 6 projects impressively address diverse subjects and geographies, from local to regional to global, homelessness and hunger to political ad analysis to climate data visualization:

1.     Sheltr

The Problem:

In many cities, there is no centralized information repository to serve the immediate needs of the homeless and hungry. In Philadelphia, for example, there are 40 shelters and 4 intake centers, and an unknown number of organizations that provide food – and real-time communication between them is minimal to non-existent. As a consequence, there is no easy and accurate way to guide people in need to available shelters and meals.

The Goal:

To quickly and accurately guide persons in need to closest available and open food and shelter resources.

The Solution:

A mobile friendly web app that provides information to guide individuals to an intake center, a place where meal can be accessed and a place to sleep for the night.

The app is targeted towards agencies, individuals serving people in need and the public. Shelters often cater to specific demographic groups: 1- single men; 2- single women; 3- families; and 4 – those with special needs (ex. physical abuse, substance abuse, mental health illness). Currently there is no way to gauge real-time availability of food and shelter services for these disparate groups. The Philly Sheltr Project is establishes consolidated baseline information (service availability), contact for intake centers and specific instructions to access resources.

2.     Daily Global Climate Data Processing and Visualization Interface

The Problem:

There is a wealth of climate data (16 billion data points) that is fragmented into a variety of incompatible formats and lacking a consistent interface. This is problematic for individuals who run hydrological models such as soil water assessment tool (s.w.a.t.) and wish to easily visualize the data.

The Goal:

To bring this important data into a consistent format that can be imported into different tools and used to create easily utilized visualizations.

The Solution:

A web-based tool will allow the user to tabulate and generate outputs in Excel or DBF file from the Japanese Daily Global Gridded Climate Dataset available daily for Max. Temperature, Min. Temperature and Precipitation globally at half-degree resolution from 1948-2006. The tool then will perform matrix calculations and data extraction based on user input choices. Resulting output will be an Excel or a DBF file. The secondary component is a Python based web-interface to do the above mentioned process in a user-friendly manner. A tertiary optional component will involve data visualization based on aggregation of output data.

3.     Truth Detector for Political Ads

The Problem:

Political ads are often misleading or false.

The Goal:

To empower the voter to quickly and accurately understand the context and facts of a particular ad.

The Solution:

An Android app that performs real-time audio analysis of a political ad, identifies the ad, its creator and content, and gives the listener access to journalistic resources and analyses by which by which to evaluate the ad.

4.     Voter ID: The High Costs of a Free Photo ID

The Problem:

13 states require a photo ID for a citizen to vote. At least 30 additional states are considering such a requirement. There are cost and other obstacles to acquiring a photo ID that may prevent eligible citizens from being able to vote.

The Goal:

To help citizens understand what they need to vote: the voter ID requirements for their state, how obtain an ID, and any costs or obstacles associated with it.

The Solution:

A mobile friendly web application where an individual can type in their address and find out the answers to these questions. If an ID is required, the app also provides information about how to acquire a free ID and the necessary paperwork to acquire it, such as a birth certificate – as well as the costs associated with these requirements.

5.     N-Vox: Neighborhood Voice

The Problem:

It is hard for the public to know its options regarding all forms of civic matters including city projects, transportation problems, housing arrangements, and more. There is no easy way for the public to collectively voice its preferences to decision makers.

The Goal:

To: 1- inform the public of its options on a variety of civic matters; 2- facilitate process by which public voices/votes their preferences; 3- inform decision makers of public opinion and desire; and 4- in principle, hold decision makers accountable for actions they take on behalf of the public.

The Solution:

A web-based crowd-sourcing platform that enables evaluation of options to civic matters in terms such as cost and complexity. This platform allows the public to vote up the issues that matter most to them and voice their opinions on potential solutions or decisions related to those issues.

6.     Hack2Unify

The Problem:

There are many groups that have problems that can be easily solved by those with specific skills. For example, a village in Africa may need a rain water collection system but does not know the right way to engineer and build it.

The Goal:

To connect easily solvable problems with those who readily have the skills to solve them.

The Solution:

Hack2Unify is essentially a ‘dating site for social good’ where those with skills and those with needs are registered and potentially matched. In the above example, this mobile friendly web-application would suggest to the engineer that they may be of service to a particular village in need and would facilitate their contact.