Harvard Affiliates Host 'Hackathon' for Technology and Public Safety

UPDATED: Nov. 7, 2013, at 2:40 a.m.

This weekend, Harvard affiliates presented inventive solutions meant to make the world safer and confront public safety issues during the first annual Public Safety Innovation Hackathon at the Harvard Innovation Lab this past weekend.

Tony Huang ’12, the Hackathon organizer, described the event’s mission as encouraging students to utilize their skills and technological prowess to create software that can be used by law enforcement.

“Why can’t these students help prevent tragedies like the [Los Angeles International Airport] shooting and apply the model used in Silicon Valley to public safety?” Huang said.

The Hackathon was coordinated by the student organization HackHarvard and digital management firm, Evidence.com.

The competition involved about 10 teams made up of Boston area college students tasked with creating software to help tackle one of several “Public Safety Problem Statements”–improving cross-agency communication, visualizing big data, and integrating social media tools for law enforcement officials.

Beginning Saturday afternoon, competitors spent the night coding, and presented their finished product on Sunday to a panel of law enforcement and IT specialist judges. A grand prize of $1000, sponsored by Evidence.com, was awarded to Robert T. Bowden ’13 and Ben B. Shryock ’15 for creating a crash reporter web application.

The Hackathon officially kicked-off Saturday morning with speeches from public safety and law enforcement professionals, including retired Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis.

“I see unlimited potential [in the Hackathon],” said Davis, who this past year oversaw the capture of the Boston Marathon bombers.”Our profession is ripe for improvement. We are using technology that looks like it came from the 80s.”

Scott E. Crouch ’13, who founded Mark43—a law enforcement startup that brings new information management abilities to police officers—characterized methods used now by police to record and find evidence as antiquated, citing practices like relying on paper records to find suspects over software.

That is where creative college kids can come in, Huang said.

“We tend to see that government tech lags behind consumer tech,” Huang said.. “Right now we are at the inflection point where government wants to use consumer technology.”

Davis noted that technology has historically helped advance crime-fighting tactics, allowing police to be preventative, rather than reactionary. But, Davis told the competitors, there is still much to do.

“The work that you do in this area can save lives,” he said. “If you can put something together that moves us from Microsoft Word to the cloud…then we can reduce some of the inefficiencies that are driving the crime rate up and help us save lives.”