New York’s MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) and AT&T are teaming up to kick off this year’s MTA App Quest with a weekend hackathon powered by NYU Poly and ChallengePost!
This two-day event invites hackers to show off their skills while solving real-world problems and enhancing the transit experience of MTA’s 8.5 million daily riders - and compete for $50,000 in prizes! ($10,000 will be awarded to hackathon participants and an additional $40,000 will be awarded at the end of the virtual challenge.) Use the MTA’s public data and APIs to build smartphone apps that:
- Provide transit visualizations of timetables, service alerts, real-time feeds, and information about capital projects, operations and other vital MTA programs
- Augment in-station way-finding, particularly for people with disabilities
- Integrate MTA services into other application workflows (calendars, e-mail programs, etc.)
- Illuminate, score and personalize the carbon-footprint reductions gained by using buses, subways, regional rail and combinations of those modes
- Leverage the increasing availability of cellular phone service on the MTA network to create data-driven models of train and bus performance and customer flow
- Are creative, functional, and engaging