Celebrate Open Data Day with 2nd Annual UTA Libraries Hackathon

To celebrate Open Data Day, the annual celebration of open data where communities show the benefits of open data and encourage the adoption of open data policies, the UTA Libraries will be hosting its 2nd annual hackathon on Saturday March 7, 2020! For the tenth time, groups from around the world will create local events on this day where they will use open data in their communities. This event can be really exciting as groups can create something small quickly without having to worry about scale and risk. The event is free but requires registration. Food and t-shirts are provided to participants! There will be prizes for first, second, and third place!

Disclaimer: We aren’t hacking into anything. Many people assume that hackathons are events where people gather to test information security. Understand hack can mean different things, but a hackathon is where we use technology to hack into real world problems and solve them with the tools available to us in a limited amount of time. In this case you will only have 24 hours to create your app!

Since this event can be completed in groups you can bring your own team, or you can buddy up and form groups with other people at the event. You do not need to be an expert in coding to participate in this event! Group members have different skill sets and sometimes non-coders have ideas, knowledge of topics, or content writing skills that provide the greatest benefit to their group. Everyone has a different background, expertise, and knowledge. Use your diverse backgrounds to come up with an application using open data to tackle the concept of “movement” in one of any areas, including: Transportation, Migration, Economics, Athletics, and more! 

The event will start at UTA Libraries 6th floor at 10 am on March 7th and end on March 8th at 10 am.  You will need to bring your own laptop loaded with standard design and development software. Remember to bring your charger cords, earbuds, layered clothing as the temperature in the building can vary.

Below are some Open Data Sources that you may find useful:

Data.gov- Data sets generated and held by the U.S. government, including Census, NOAA, USGS. University and state government data sets are available also.

HealthData.gov- This site is dedicated to making high value health data more accessible in the hopes of better health outcomes for all.

World Bank Open Data- Free and open access to global development data.

UNdata: United Nations Data- International statistical databases from the UN and other international agencies.

Data.CDC.gov- Open datasets made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Texas Health Data- Datasets collected by the Texas Department of State Health Services Center for Health Statistics.

Open Data Portals- A comprehensive list of open data portals around the world.

Open Data on AWS- The Registry of Open Data on AWS makes it easy to find datasets made publicly available through AWS services.

Re3Data - Registry of Research Data Repositories- A global registry of research data repositories that covers research data repositories from different academic disciplines.