Innovative Learning Week in Informatics 18th - 22nd February 2013
Doing smart things with data to benefit local people
If you've got some data you'd like to see used, a problem that to be solved or expertise to share, get in touch here.
If you're a student interested in taking part, find out more and register a team here.
The University of Edinburgh's Innovative Learning Week gives students a chance to take a break from the usual timetable and do something different to enrich their academic experience. In Informatics, we're introducing students to challenges faced by local organisations and community groups so that we can explore ways in which open data can be used to solve some of these problems. Students will be generating ideas and hacking with a range of technologies over the course of a week to generate prototype web and mobile applications which benefit the groups involved, or the public at large.
We want to work with local groups and organisations, even if you've never done anything like this before. You don't need to know anything about open data to find some value here. Open data can be a great tool for social empowerment... if you do want to learn more about it, a good place to start is this video about open government data by the Open Knowledge Foundation.
We're also seeking mentors and people who can run technical workshops. We'd love to hear from professional designers and developers, and postgradaute or more experienced students. Keep reading to find out more.
There are loads of ways of both supporting and benefiting from this event. Sponsors and partners are encouraged to give a short introduction to themselves (or their data or the challenges they're providing, as appropriate) during the opening of the event on the morning of Monday the 18th. This will take place in Inspace (map).
Whatever the size or scope of your organisation, if you're based locally to Edinburgh and face challenges that might be solveable with technology, you can talk to us about getting involved. Maybe there's some software or an app you wish you had, data about the local area that would make a huge difference if you could access it, or a just vague feeling that a technical solution could benefit your organisation. Understanding the problems that you face can help us to decide where to best focus our efforts, and we can work together to propose challenges for the students to work on.
Alternatively, maybe you've been collecting data about something (in any format), and want to see it used in new or interesting ways? Or you have an idea for an app that could use it or a visualisation of some kind. We'd love to offer it up to the students to experiment with, and we can help you convert it into alternative formats if need be.
Students will have varying levels of technical knowledge and programming experience, so it's really important that there's plenty of opportunity for them to learn. We're looking for people with appropriate skills to mentor students or deliver short workshops over the course of the week. Useful topics include:
Mentoring can involve hanging out in the hacking space (for an amount of time and on days to suit you) and being available for students to ask for help with technical problems. Distance mentors are also welcome, via IRC, instant messaging or social networks. If you'd like to mentor in person, let us know what days you'll be available and what your areas of expertise are. (We'll also ask you for a photo to put on the website, so that students can easily identify you).
If you'd like to run a workshop, the primary slots are on Monday afternoon, and obviously earlier in the week would be better for the students in terms of progressing their projects, but let us know when would suit you.
Finally, we need to be able to reward the students for all of their hard work. If you'd like to sponsor a prize or catering, we'd love to hear from you!
The hack is taking place during Innovative Learning Week; the 18th to 22nd of February, 2013.
More details to be added. This schedule is provisional, and subject to change!
1000 Introduction in Inspace, with drinks and snacks
1030 Skyscanner introduce their data and challenges.
1100 ALISS introduce their data and challenges.
1130 City of Edinburgh Council introduce their data and challenges.
1200 Other data holders and challenge properosers introduce themselves.
1300 Lunch in Inspace
1330 Team formation and networking
1400 Hacking begins
1430 - 1530 Workshop 1: Handling geolocated data (AT4)
1530 - 1630 Workshop 2: Visualisation with d3.js (Inspace, max. 30 people)
1530 - 1600 Workshop 3: Version Control for beginners (AT4)
1600 - 1630 Workshop 4: Beginning HTML5 Web apps (AT4)
1700 Mobile Apps Usability talk by Skyscanner (Inspace)
1800 Pizza and networking
1000 - 1700 Hacking and snacks on AT4. Mentors available.
1000 - 1700 Hacking and snacks on AT4. Mentors available.
1100 Lightning presentations of your progress so far.
1300 Lunch
1000 - 1700 Hacking and snacks on AT4. Mentors available.
1000 - 1400 Hacking and snacks on AT4. Mentors available.
1400 Hacking ends. Lunch.
1500 Demonstrations, judging and prizes.
1730 Fin.