UoA student's team places at "Connect 2015 in Koriyama, with UDC" hackaton!

Connect 2015 in Koriyama, with UDC (*1) was held over the weekend of August 29 to 30, 2015 in Koriyama. There, 2nd-year UoA undergrad Nagisa Yonehara's team placed 2nd in the competition.

The theme of this hackathon-style (*2) competition was "Solving Local Issues Through IT and Open Data." The competition was also aimed at collecting entries for this year's UDC (Urban Data Challenge) 2015 (*3). UDC is a nationwide contest open to members of the general public for entries that include applications and services that utilize Open Data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to solve local issues. The deadline for entries to UDC is December, and screening is scheduled for early March in Tokyo.

Name: Koriyama Ostomate-Friendly Toilets (*4)
Details: An ostomate is a person who has had a stoma (an opening such as an artificial rectum or bladder) surgically installed in their abdomen, etc. for the excretion of waste, having lost part of their digestive or urinary tract due to illness, injury, etc. This entry involves using transforming the ostomate-friendly toilets in Koriyama City into open data.
Purpose: In 2013, Fukushima Prefecture was 3rd in the nation for the highest production value of medical devices. In addition, a project to build the world's first BNCT (Boron Neutron Capture Therapy) cancer treatment facility within South Tohoku General Hospital located in Koriyama City has been realized. In short, medical technology in the region has developed considerably. Considering this, efforts have been made to collect the names, addresses, and coordinates of facilities with ostomate-friendly toilets in Koriyama City in order to further contribute to the development of medical technology.

Comment from Yonehara: The open data we created earned us 2nd place, which makes me very happy. This competition has some great exchange and recreation events for the participants, which were a lot of fun. Moving forward towards UDC2015, I would like to develop applications, etc. that use the data we created.

Yonehara receiving the award (left), Yonehara (on the left) celebrating the award with teammates (right)

*1 Notice from Connect 2015 in Koriyama, with UDC, Facebook Page

*2 The word "hackathon" is a portmanteau of the words "hack" and "marathon". A "hackathon" is an event where participants interested in the same theme compete with each other to develop software, etc.

*3 Overview of Urban Data Challenge 2015

*4 Koriyama Ostomate-Friendly Toilets