App Challenge Team Spotlight: CODE-McGill
The App Challenge Team Spotlight series consists of articles focused on teams that participated in the ECCE App Challenge and the apps they built for the competition.
Matthew Tenney, Jin Xing, and Carl Hughes are students currently studying at McGill University. They are members of CODE-McGill – one of several different teams from McGill University who participated in the ECCE App Challenge.
Matthew Tenney is a PhD student in Geography at McGill University working on “Coded Engagement” – the intersection between computers, data, and citizens – and how this can alter the way local governments operate.
Jin Xing is a Ph.D. Student in the department of Geography at McGill University. He is currently working on geographic change detection with GIS and remote sensing methods.
Carl Hughes is an MA student in Geography at McGill University working on the use of mHealth systems and geovisualization for near real-time disease surveillance.
CODE-McGill were interested in building an app that could help engage members of communities by allowing them to share comments and critical input with fellow citizens. Community Open Data Engage (CODE) is a tool that gives users the capability to explore and make sense of their surrounding community by providing them access to open data sets containing comprehensive neighbourhood profiles. CODE also encourages citizens to connect with each other through the use of social media.
CODE relies on three core components: interactive visualization to display spatial data on the map, spatial and aspatial analytics performed behind the scenes using Python and Esri software, and lastly, user input. By utilizing these components, CODE aims to help anyone use open data to become an active member of their community!
Visit the CODE Github page to find out more about the project, or try the app out at http://code-engage.com/.