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Hackathon | Data Analytics in Public Transport

14 February 2022–15 February 2022, 9:00 am–12:00 pm

Image of an underground train in London. The platform is empty except for two people in the back. The signage indicates that the next two trains are going to Barking and Tower Hill.

This hackathon will allow participants to explore Public Transport data of two European cities: Stockholm and London. Participants will either analyse its operation data (vehicle movement data) or propose innovative ways of using data, with the eventual aim of improving customer experience or/and increasing operation efficiency.

Event Information

Open to

All | UCL staff | UCL students

Availability

Yes

Organiser

Taku Fujiyama (University College London)

This online event also provides opportunities for students and researchers of three universities: KTH, Lund, and UCL, to work together in teams, and the winners will be given an opportunity to physically attend a workshop at the counterpart university and present the work to and interact with practitioners.


Brief

There are some apps that show when the next train comes, how you get your destination, etc., but can we do something more to either improve journey experience or increase the operation efficiency. This hackathon will ask you a question: rather than just presenting the information in user-friendly ways, can we apply data analytics to these data and propose innovative ways to use/exploit the data? The implementation can be real-time systems for passengers, but also some business insight statistics for operators and any form is fine. We would like to hear new concepts or even prototypes with small demonstrations using some data extracted from the sample dataset or any data participants can collect from APIs.


Prizes

The winning team(s) will be awarded valuable prize(s), specifically shopping vouchers.
We have a budget to invite the best teams to workshops at the counterpart countries to present their ideas to practitioners.


Registration and more information

Joining this event is free of charge.
Participants from the three institutions will work together with English as the working language.
This event is supported by the City Partnership Programme.

Interested in taking part in the hackhathon? Sign up here!

Schedule:

The hackathon consists of two half-day synchronous elements, one on the 14th and one on the 15th February. Teams are welcome to continue to work on their project in between these dates.

Day 1: 14th February (Monday) 
09:00 - 09:15: Introduction and welcome 
09:15 - 09:45: Opening talks 
09:45 - 10:30: Parallel workshop: Explaining data

  • Bus data
  • Commuter train data
  • Intercity and freight train data

10:30 - 11:00 : Idea generation time
11:00 - 11:15: Break
11:15 - 12:00: Pitching project ideas and team formation/finalisation
12:00 – onwards: Work time (you do not need to work all the time. Discuss with team members)

Day 2: 15th February (Tuesday)
09:00 - 09:15: Welcome back
09:15 - 10:30: Work and Last-minute help
10:30 – 11:30 : Presentations
11:30 - 11:45: Break
11:45 - 12:00: Announcement of winners. Conclusion.

Participants continue working on the data between the first and second day. How long and when they work is totally up to each team.

Data to be used:


We will provide the following data:

  • Bus data (Stockholm)
  • Commuter train data (Stockholm)
  • Intercity, freight and Commuter train data (London and South East)

Organisers:

 

  • Zhenliang Ma (KTH)
  • Carl-William Palmqvist (Lund University)
  • Taku Fujiyama (University College London)