Participating in a hackathon for three full days is a serious commitment. A UTTRI team demonstrated dedication last week during a Statistics Canada (StatCan) hackathon on Urban Transit Data.
Faculty advisor Professor Amer Shalaby assembled the team from a variety of programs and disciplines and two universities. The team included two industry advisors.
On March 19, teams were instructed by StatCan facilitator David Evans to develop effective methods of analyzing and/or visualizing transit system data to aid in system optimization. The event began without fanfare: the team was granted access to the urban transit data (7 million records covering September to December 2018) on March 19 and their brainstorming began at U of T.
Over the course of the three days, the team had access to StatCan “mentors” who answered questions by email. The UTTRI team emailed François Quirouette (OC Transpo) and Darrell Bridge (City of Ottawa) a few times.
On March 21, five participants delivered a presentation of the team’s results, “Improving Student Experience with Smart Card Data.” Via teleconference while using WebEx to share their screen with judges in Ottawa, the participants took turns delivering their presentation.
UTTRI Team recommendations
- Improve bus shelters in locations with high transfer volumes in order to improve student experience
- Coordinate headways and schedules at transfer points to reduce transfer time
- Reduce number of transfer for frequent users.
Judging
Presentations by a total of five participating teams were heard by OC Transpo officials, who took notes with a view to explore ways to use the ideas generated.
The judge from OC Transpo was particularly impressed by the U of T team’s integration of weather information and Google Streetview. They also appreciated the identification of the top 10 transfer locations used by students.
Next steps
StatCan uses hackathons as an opportunity to showcase data, develop new products and/or improve methods.
According to David Evans, StatCan and OC Transpo both see great potential in collaboration, and are now laying the groundwork for future opportunities.
For more information from Statistics Canada, please email Innovation Coordinator / Coord de l’innovation (STATCAN).
UTTRI Urban Transit Data Hackathon Team
Participants
- Jeff Allen (PhD student, Geog)
- Zahra Ansarilari (PhD candidate, Civ Eng)
- Maria Demitiry (3rd year, Eng Sci)
- Dr. Greice Mariano (Postdoctoral Fellow, OCAD U)
- Alaa Itani (MASc student, Civ Eng)
- Yusuf Shalaby (MASc student, Ind Eng)
Industry Advisors
- Kenny Ling, TTC
- Tony Zhuang, Burlington Transit
Faculty Advisor
- Professor Amer Shalaby, UTTRI
Statistics Canada Facilitator and Organizer
- David Evans, Senior Innovation Analyst, Statistics Canada
See also related article: Freight Flow Hackathon team generates ideas for Statistics Canada