Communications of the ACM
A 24-Hour Social Innovation Hackathon to Fight World Hunger
A group of people gathered at the University of California, Berkeley in late November to participate in a Social Innovation Hackathon.
Credit: University of California, Berkeley
In late November, 36 people gathered at the University of California, Berkeley to participate in a Social Innovation Hackathon to support Heifer International's global activities to curb hunger. Participants came from the university as well as from across the San Francisco Bay Area, and were divided into groups to strategize, design, and code.
Seven teams emerged with working prototypes following the 24-hour hacking marathon. The winning project was an Android app to support program monitoring and evaluation. The app was designed by William Wu and Jiehua Chen of Quantitative Engineering Design, and enables users to collect a standard set of data while in the field and cache it locally on their devices. When the devices detect an Internet connection, the stored information syncs to the database at Heifer headquarters, making data available online in the form of tables and maps to facilitate data analysis and visualization. The app also automatically georeferences and timestamps the data, and supports the inclusion of photos taken in the field. Many areas where Heifer International operates have poor or no Internet connectivity, requiring staff to use paper documentation and manual data entry at Heifer offices. The winning app enables the collection of accurate data in the field.
From University of California, Berkeley
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Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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