City of Memphis Hackathon November 15-17, 2024 FedEx Institute of Technology

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Background: One of Mayor Young’s Good Governance strategies outlined in his transition plan has been to foster a Memphis technology renaissance. With so many talented individuals, pipeline organizations, and businesses in the Memphis area, the City has made it a priority to tap into these valuable assets to help solve tough civic challenges. As part of this effort, the City of Memphis and key community partners hosted a Hackathon in November 2024 that was open to the public and encouraged participants to use their strengths and expertise to design new solutions for old problems.

Event Overview: The City Hackathon is a 36-hour “sprint” event where volunteers lend their tech and creativity skills to develop solutions to specific problems the City of Memphis is looking for help on. At our Hackathon in November 2024, 70 hackers formed 14 teams and focused on one of three challenge areas the City has asked for new innovative ideas on:

Rethinking services & strategies to reduce neighborhood blight
Rethinking services & strategies to improve transportation for workforce development programs
Leveraging new technology like the high-speed fiber network and AI to improve City services

Agenda Activities: On Friday night, Mayor Young gave opening remarks, and experts provided an overview of each of the three challenge areas. Hackers then brainstormed ideas for solutions and decided which team and solution they would work on the rest of the weekend. On Saturday, teams continued to develop and refine their solutions. They also had the opportunity to receive coaching from outside experts and participate in optional skill-building workshops on GIS/mapping using Felt, “Internet of Things” sensor and camera data capture, generative AI low- and no-code tools, and data visualization. On Sunday, the hacker teams presented their final projects to a panel of judges including City COO Antonio Adams, Tech Founder and Live at 9 hostess Kontji Anthony, Malasri Engineering Founder JT Malasri, and Ookla Software Engineer, Bryce Sharp. The judges determined awards including a $2,000 grand prize for the best overall solution and three $1,000 prizes for the best solution in each challenge category.

Organizers: Innovate Memphis partnered with the City of Memphis and Memphis Technology Foundation to organize the 2024 City Hackathon along with seven other partners on the event steering committee: BPDA Memphis, City Leadership, Code Crew, Epicenter, Midsouth Makers, Start Co, and Tech901. The steering committee was essential in providing expertise and ideas for the event agenda, recruiting talented Memphians from their networks to participate, and volunteering throughout the event to ensure it ran smoothly.

Grand Prize Team($2,000 prize) – Byte the Blight

Project Description: A Blight Layer API Gateway that will summarize Blight data across departments and allow GIS-informed Blight remediation by the Mayor’s office, civic maintenance technicians, citizens, and non-profits. It will also allow for 3rd-party mapping services to provide auto-routing and crowdsourced data retrieval/submission.

Team Members:
Prince Bobo
Michael Gattas
Leo Rule
Mike Schoenberger

Project Artifacts

Link to presentation

Challenge 1 (Blight) Winner ($1,000 prize) – Clean Slate

Project Description: A program that will allow adults re-entering from incarceration and youth to organize neighborhood cleanups and put cash in their pockets while beautifying their City.

Team Members:
Hassan Ali
Kaliaya Dews
Katerra Payne
Yusra Salameh
Yesenia Sanchez
Tasneem Wakil

Project Artifacts

Link to presentation

Challenge 2 (Workforce Transportation) Winner ($1,000 prize) – Tech Titans

Project Description: Website prototype where multiple local employers can upload transportation needs/schedules for employees and pool resources to provide rides to and from work.

Team Members:
Carl Bledsoe Jr
Venki Mandapati
Venky Rajendran
Balaji Venkatasubramaniyar

Project Artifacts

Link to presentation

Link to video demo

Challenge 3 (AI & Smart City) Winner ($1,000 prize) – NEAIA (Non-Emergency Artificial Intelligence Assistant)

Project Description: An AI assistant designed to alleviate pressure on emergency dispatch systems by redirecting non-emergency calls and helping individuals report non-urgent issues effectively, educating the public on proper 911 usage, and enhancing response times for true emergencies.

Team Members:
Kareem DaSilva
Chisom Okonkwo

Project Artifacts

Link to presentation

Link to video demo