NYU-2026 PIT-UN Tech for Change Urban Informatics for Safe, Just, and Thriving Communities Hackathon
Join us for the three-day Tech for Change "Urban Informatics for Safe, Just, and Thriving Communities Hackathon" featuring keynote speakers, urban data science curriculum, and hands-on workshops—all designed to prepare you for team-based hackathon competition. This event is hosted by Debanjan Roychoudhury, Adjunct Faculty member at the Center for Urban Science + Progress at NYU Tandon, Gianna Campa, M.S. Candidate in Applied Urban Data Science at CUSP, Aunray Stanford, NYU Gallatin student and founder of Safe Step, Jerome Louison, Data and Evaluation Manager at Kings Against Violence Initiative, and the Public Interest Technology-University Network (PIT-UN).
This hackathon will familiarize participants with data-driven approaches to building civic tech solutions addressing community challenges around public safety, justice, and equity. Along with project partner organizations and researchers, participants will develop asset-based, neighborhood-specific solutions for challenges to safety and wellbeing, as defined by community members for themselves. Participants will innovate justice tech while enacting participatory governance, building networks to last, across sectors both for employers and for emerging talent. This is a one-of-a-kind gathering of minds!
Overview
The NYU-2026 Tech for Change "Urban Informatics for Safe, Just, and Thriving Communities" Hackathon invites participants from all backgrounds and levels of (lived) experience with science, tech, policy, and data to assist in building civic tech tools to design and reimagine systems of safe, just, and thriving neighborhoods for tomorrow, today. The hackathon consists of several projects that fall under the Safe, Just, and Thriving track themes, consisting of datasets built by diverse teams of budding data scientists, including students, faculty, community members, continuing learners, loved ones, civic leaders, engineers, designers, planners, healthcare workers, and more.
The hackathon will also integrate Braid, an open-source, human-centered storytelling platform, to facilitate design thinking through lived experience. Participants will use Braid to share personal narratives, reflect on community knowledge, and weave stories into the data-driven problem-solving process. By pairing urban informatics with storytelling, teams will ground technical innovation in the voices and experiences of the communities most impacted.
Through structured storytelling sessions using Braid, participants will engage in a design-thinking process that moves from story to insight to prototype—ensuring that community narratives inform the framing of challenges, the interpretation of datasets, and the development of solutions.
Certificate of Completion, Judging, and Prizes
Participants who complete all three days of workshops, seminars, and hands-on projects for submission to award consideration will receive a digital badge from PIT-UN and NYU Tandon School of Engineering to be displayed on personal websites, social media, and for applications to employers.
Hackathon submissions will be judged across three categories: Impact, Imagination, and Innovation. The top-ranking teams in each individual category will receive a prize for that category, and the team with the highest overall score will be announced as the winner of the hackathon.
Judging will also consider how effectively teams integrate community storytelling and human-centered design principles into their technical solutions.
Prizes will include cash prizes of $200+ for winning teams, plus credits for participating data tools of $200+ for winners.
Theme
Data projects will revolve around the intersection of safety, justice, and the myriad attributes of what it means for a community to thrive. Guided by complex systems thinking and an ecological framework — meaning that safety and justice are elements of society that touch upon, and are impacted by, other aspects of community planning and institutional inequity — projects will take on different approaches to improving and building on community-based efforts to addressing intersecting crises of incarceration, violence, safety, and well-being.
Urban data science curricular programming and hands-on workshops are designed and offered to train participants in data collection, analysis, and visualization toward pitching and proposing real-life solutions and approaches to longstanding cycles of poverty and punishment. We hope you will join us in unpacking the ubiquity of how "urban informatics" can be understood and utilized to uplift and empower civic engagement and participatory governance, both locally and around the world.
In addition to traditional data workflows, participants will use Braid to document their design journey, contribute reflective insights, and co-create a living anthology of stories connected to each project track. This approach reinforces civic tech as not only a technical endeavor, but also a relational and human-centered practice.
Using Braid as a collaborative storytelling infrastructure, participants will surface lived experiences, map narrative patterns across communities, and “braid” qualitative insight with quantitative data. This integrated methodology supports more ethical, inclusive, and community-informed civic technology design.
Schedule
This three-day, in-person event will take place at 370 Jay Street, Room 1201. Visit the google site at the top of this overview for the full schedule, which will include hands-on workshops, panels, and lightning talks.
Thursday, March 5: 5:00 – 7:30 PM EST
Friday, March 6: 1:00 PM – 5 PM EST
Saturday, March 7: 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST
Eligibility
This hackathon is open to students, faculty, community-based organizations, individuals with lived experience of the criminal legal system, or who identify as justice system impacted in any way, city workers, continuing learners, general public, loved ones, and anyone without a technical background but with curiosity about the intersections of tech, governance, transparency, equity, and justice.
Participants without a valid NYU ID must complete advanced registration via Luma to ensure building access prior to the event. Your name as registered via Luma must match the name on a government-issued photo ID in order to access 370 Jay Street.
Speakers
Thurs 3/5:
Opening Remarks:
Maurizio Porfiri, NYU CUSP
Gianna Campa, NYU CUSP
Debanjan Roychoudhury, NYU CUSP
Keynote:
Dennis Prince Mapp, Citizen App
Panelists:
Alaa Moussawi, City Council Data Team
Melissa Nuñez, City Council Data Team
Jerome Louison, NYU CUSP Alum, KAVI
Aunray Stanford, NYU Gallatin, ManUp, Inc.
Darcy Hauslik, Center for Justice Innovation
Jaeok Kim, Vera Institute of Justice
Project Partners:
Luisa Portugal, NYU Center for International Cooperation
Felipe Leichsnering Mendes, Prefeitura de Niterói
Chelsey Anseeuw, Safe & Healthy Communities, Edmonton
Ketan Sinha, NYU CUSP, Office of Public Advocate of NYC
Tyler Richardett, FreeOurVote
Jerome Louison, KAVI
Priscilla Bustamente, CUNY GC, Community Safety Project
Sandhya Kajeepeta, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Fri 3/6:
Workshops:
Fabiha Islam, NYU Tandon
Alaa Moussawi, City Council Data Team
Anamika Shreevastava, NYU CUSP
Maurizio Porfiri, NYU CUSP
Anton Rozkhov, NYU CUSP
Manny Patole, NYU CUSP
Pauline Ross, Offices of the New York State Inspector General
Sat 3/7:
Lightning Talks:
Shayne Figueroa, NYU
Alex Chohlas-Wood, NYU Steinhardt
Tyler Richardett, FreeOurVote
Ruoyu Li, NYU CUSP, DarkSky
Sandhya Kajeepeta, Thurgood Marshall Institute, NAACP
Edwin Grimsley, CUNY Baruch, Columbia QMSS
Frankie Wunschel, Vera Institute of Justice
Judges:
James Dobbins, Guns Down Life Up, Lincoln Hospital
Toni Wilson, KAVI
Luz Hernandez, Chair of District Attorney Advisory Council, YJN
Manny Patole, NYU CUSP
Alaa Moussawi, City Council Data Team
Closing Remarks:
Andreen Soley, Public Interest Technology-University Network
Project Tracks
Community Partner-led Tracks
Project Restore BedStuy — Everyday Peace Indicators of Safety and Well-being
Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies at NYU’s Center for International Cooperation (CIC)
Niteroi, Brazil
Edmonton, Canada
Office of the New York City Public Advocate — Youth Detention
Kings Against Violence Initiative — Community Violence Intervention (CVI) Resource Mapping
Man Up Inc. — Crisis Management System (CMS) Credible Messenger Canvassing
FreeOurVote — Restoring rights for formerly convicted
NYU Researcher-led Tracks
Civilian Complaint Review Board — Police Misconduct Allegations
District Attorney — Mass Conspiracy Indictments
Gender-based Violence and Policing
Housing
Visitor Information
This event will be held in Room 1201, located on the 12th Floor of 370 Jay St. Please visit the NYU Tandon website for directions and a campus map. Advance registration through Luma is required for campus access at NYU for external guests.