June 8, 2015
Marking the 3rd annual celebration of the National Day of Civic Hacking, this is the first in a summer of #techLA events that challenge hackers to develop innovative solutions to address water conservation, transportation, and community.
LOS ANGELES–Mayor Eric Garcetti and Hack for L.A., the largest civic hacking organization in Southern California, today announced the winners of this summer’s first #techLA event.
This weekend’s event served as the kick-off for Mayor Garcetti’s new open-data technology challenge, in partnership with Civic Innovation Lab. Events throughout the summer will invite Angelenos— technologists, designers, data scientists, public servants, and other community members—to engage around three areas of public need: water conservation, transportation, and community.
“Combining good data, creativity, and teamwork, Angelenos can conquer our City’s toughest challenges by developing technology to help fight our historic drought, navigate our congested streets, and connect L.A.’s immigrant population to resources that can make the American dream a reality,” said Mayor Garcetti. “In L.A., we are interested in putting data to work and empowering Angelenos to solve problems.”
Saturday’s hackathon, hosted on the 3rd annual National Day of Civic Hacking, brought together 600 developers, designers, civic hackers, and community organizers to develop new innovations over a two-day period.
Hackers and non-technical Angelenos also participated in a series of “Save the Drop” trainings, which offered everyday solutions for water conservation, part of Mayor Garcetti’s goal to reduce per capita water use by 20% by 2017.
Submissions from this weekend were reviewed by a panel of judges on Sunday. The winners were given the following awards:
- From the California HealthCare Foundation:
- 1st place winner: Transportation + Health – $2,000 Pool Party & Urban Trail
- 2nd place winner: Children Health – $750 ExBully
- 3rd place winner: Asthma – $250 Breath L.A.
- From ESRI: Best app that uses an ESRI Mapping Technology – $500 Pool Party
- From FWD.us: Best Immigration Solution in honor of Immigrant Heritage Month – $500 FWD
- From Deutsch/Futurethon
- Best Overall Drought Winner – Apple Watch or Samsung Smart Watch: Save a Californian
- Runner Up Drought Winner – Drought Swag Bag: Dew Good
- From USC & Global Shapers LA Hub: Drought related solution – Summer Fellowship at USC: Terracotta
The weekend’s winners and upcoming Challenge:LA finalists will have access to a range of mentoring and networking opportunities to maximize the impact and reach of their ideas.
The next hackathon, on July 31, will focus on water conservation and is sponsored by Rhubarb Studios.
This LA Annual National Day of Civic Hacking event was made possible in partnership with The Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, the i.am.angel Foundation, Futurethon, Esri, Deutsch, Gimbal, Civic Innovation Lab, Compiler LA, Los Angeles Information Technology Agency, Control Panel LA, Hub LA, CTRL Collective, FWD.us and the California HealthCare Foundation.
