George Washington University’s Transportation Team awarded $25K at GigabitDCx

Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Office of the Chief Technology Officee (OCTO) have officially announced a winner for the inaugural GigabitDCx.

The Bowser administration and OCTO launched the challenge to give the community a chance to address the city’s traffic and changing climate by creating gigabit apps. After announcing the challenge in October, six semifinalist teams were selected in November who moved into the second phase to develop their concepts and build prototypes of their proposed solutions. The six teams demoed their solutions to the #dctech community on Jan. 30 at WeWork‘s 80 M St SE location. Two winning teams were selected to split the $34,000 cash prize funded through D.C.’s partnership with US Ignite and the Smart Gigabit Communities program.

George Washington University’s Transportation Team was awarded first place and $25,000 in funding to go toward research and scaling their solution, Road Vision. The information sharing app uses artificial intelligence to translate video feeds into traffic mobility and safety information to mitigate traffic congestion and aid in safety planning, OCTO states.

We are excited to announce @GWtweets Transportation Team winners of the first ever #GigabitDCx! We went to the GW campus to surprise them with their $25,000 award made possible by @US_Ignite

🔗Full Announcement: https://t.co/4czoD6KDHT pic.twitter.com/aV1EhsY8d0

— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) February 12, 2019

“Data collection is often time consuming and expensive, but it’s critical in meeting Mayor Bowser’s goals for Vision Zero,” District Department of Transportation Director Jeff Marootian said in a statement. “Count technologies like Road Vision that include pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, and vehicles offer a unique chance to address these issues by allowing the public to contribute to data collection and sharing the results publicly.”

The crowdsourced data that the team collects for Road Vision can be shared in real-time to roadway users, supplementing other traffic data sources, to help users make better route decisions, the press release states. The data can also be used by government entities when making transparent policy decisions.

Mark Sussman and Daniel Shep received Honorable Mention and were awarded $9,000 for their solution How’s My Driving? It’s a mobile app crowdsourcing solution for pinpointing D.C.’s most habitually dangerous drivers. Both of the winning teams were the only groups to focus on transportation, as the four remaining teams all focused on environmental solutions.

The Bowser administration and OCTO are launching a second public innovation competition beginning this spring that will be focused on public health and public safety.