The ECCE App Challenge 2020 results are in! It has been nearly three months since the App Challenge started in mid-February. Two weeks ago, we introduced the 17 teams that completed the App Challenge this year, all creating apps to address different aspect of the main theme: Health. Judging of all of the teams’ projects is now complete, and we are ready to declare the winners of this year’s competition…


Winners: QuaranTEAM
from University of Toronto
(St. George)

Congratulations go to the members of this team, Cathy Yang, Tia Datta, and Chloe Nguyen, taking first place for the competition. This trio of students worked effectively (and remotely) using Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS to build their app ReCOVer. The application presents a COVID-19 Neighbourhood Vulnerability Index that they produced using a combination of demographic and healthcare metrics as input data, accompanied by a utility for users to search for and navigate to the locations of nearby healthcare facilities in Toronto. In addition to the app itself, this team’s project included a web page as a front end to present information about their application, alongside a well-produced video, and a well written mission statement and project documentation.


First runner-up:
Geo Nerd Herd from York University

Xuyang Han, Aman Usmani, and Amirhossein Nourbakhsh formed this team that collaborated to build their Toronto Health Care Query System using Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS. The app is configured using the Dashboard Theme, and presents a variety of metrics for healthcare facilities, such as wait times and capacity. The aim of their application is to help users make informed decisions when seeking healthcare options in Toronto. This team also made effective use of an additional web page as a front end for their application, and produced a great video presentation to go along with their detailed project documentation.


This year, we also have two teams that tied as second runners-up:

Safe Routin’ Cowgirls from the University of Calgary

This team, formed by Nikki Rogers, Shifa Hayat, and Alix Power, built an application that seeks to improve people’s ability to avoid times and locations that are known to have high risk when planning routes within the City of Calgary, with the aim to improve public awareness of traffic collision risks and help prevent collisions. Their app is built using Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS, and includes an online form created using Survey123 to facilitate citizen reporting of traffic collisions.

MapMasters from McMaster University

Maryrose D’Arienzo, Jason Lam, and Livia Nguyen built their Toronto COVID-19 Susceptibility Assessment application, also using Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS. They developed a series of susceptibility analysis maps based on economic and health related factors, combined using pairwise comparison of multiple factors to determine relative weights. They configured their application to present these data effectively for users to explore and analyze.


Details and demos for all 17 teams can be viewed from our GitHub account.

All of these projects are the results of the efforts by the many excellent students at our ECCEs, and exemplify how well these small groups can collaborate using the ArcGIS platform to quickly build unique and innovative applications.

Special thanks go to all of the students at each ECCE that participated in the challenge, and the directors at each school for helping to facilitate and support their students.

Check the ECCE blog soon for more stories shared by members of this year’s teams about their experience working together on their projects.

We look forward to the next App Challenge in 2021, and hope to see many of these students returning to compete again!