Diamond Member SpaceMan 0 Posted March 23 Diamond Member Share Posted March 23 On Jan. 31, students, library staff, researchers, and community members gathered at the University of Florida’s (UF) Marston Science Library for the Environmental Monitoring through Education, Research, and Geospatial Engagement (EMERGE) NASA Data Hackathon. This initiative empowers libraries, educators, and individuals to engage in public health and environmental science using real-world data tools and citizen science. At the center of EMERGE is NASA’s Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer app, which allows anyone with a smartphone to collect and explore data on mosquito habitats, land cover, clouds, and more. From morning workshops to an end-of-day sprint, participants spent the day transforming real environmental data into maps, dashboards, infographics, and practical insights supporting public health and environmental decision-making. The event was hosted by the Geospatial Digital Informatics Lab (part of the Geography Department at UF), SciStarter (the world’s largest citizen science database), and Florida Community Innovation (a civic technology nonprofit), with support from NASA and UF Libraries. The hackathon gave participants a chance to work directly with these volunteer-collected datasets and see how local observations connect to global research. Participants had access to a This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up created by the GeoDI Lab that explains how to download, process, visualize, and analyze GLOBE Observer data. At the hackathon, 13 teams came together to build projects analyzing GLOBE data or reenvisioning data collection for the app. You can explore the gallery of projects This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Celebrating Hackathon Winners The following participants won honors in their categories. APP IMPROVEMENT TRACK Winner — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Matheus Kunzler MaldanerHoang Anh MaiLuana Kunzler MaldanerNicolas MurguiaAlfred Navarro Honorable Mention — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Kelly MumaSeth Paul User Interface Recognition — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Kaushal ThotaSparsh Mogha ADVANCED TRACK Winner — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Aseel IsmailShreya ShanmugamDevadarshini DhandapaniShivani Chandrasekar Winner — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Siddharth NaharAnushri N RAvantika HollaMatthew Losito Honorable Mention — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Nancy MurphyPhilippa Burgess Mapping Recognition — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Ayesha Malligai M. INTERMEDIATE TRACK Winner — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Isabella BodeaEvan MullinsAashita Rai Honorable Mention — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up RamyaLakshmi KSDelilah PenateThomas BarbatoAmit Rajpurkar Data Analysis Recognition — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Gabriel Dos SantosSatyabrata DasMatthew WhiteDylan Aaron BEGINNER TRACK Winner — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Breanna BlackwoodDemitri TuMasha BelyaevaElizabeth NguyenTommy Lin Honorable Mention — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Novaarcoid Rajpurkar FIELD TRACK Winner — This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Wei LiuYichan Li How You Can Get Involved If you’re interested in civic tech, public-interest data, and community-centered research, you’re invited to get involved with Florida Community Innovation (FCI), one of the Hackathon partners. The FCI works year-round with students and community partners to build accessible tools, maps, and public resources and welcomes new collaborators from a wide range of backgrounds. Get started with FCI by visiting This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up , and email *****@*****.tld to join one of their Wednesday meetings at 6 p.m. EDT to be matched with a project (like building games for Miami-Dade’s Recyclepedia app, helping create an AI tool for social workers in Orlando, and more). Interested in shaping future EMERGE events? Apply to join a planning committee to help design the next hackathon! Committee members will help think through formats, tracks, accessibility, and community partnerships, with the goal of keeping future events welcoming, practical, and responsive to local needs. Organizers will receive a small honorarium. For more information, send an email to Caroline Nickerson: *****@*****.tld To start doing NASA science from your own neighborhood or backyard, you can also download the This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This app makes it possible for anyone to collect and explore data on mosquito habitats, land cover, and more! The EMERGE program is made possible with the support of NASA through the Citizen Science Seed Funding Program, with the goal of enabling more scientists to develop and use citizen science techniques in their work. This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up From left: Olivia Zhang, Joe Aufmuth, Natya Hans, Yichan Li, Wei Liu, and Caroline Nickerson. Caroline Nickerson This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Learn More and Get Involved This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up GLOBE Observer Choose from several different projects to help scientists learn about planet Earth. For anyone with a smartphone. Kid friendly! 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