Ateneo students' crowdsourcing app wins hackathon awards

A cloud-based mobile app that collates crowdsourced data during disasters won two awards in a recent hackathon on disaster resilience.

 

The app, dubbed "eULAT: Crowdsourcing Post disaster assessment," was developed by three Ateneo de Manila University students.

 

"With eUlat within reach, ordinary citizens are empowered to report information relevant to post disaster assessment. The reports will be sent using Short Message Service (SMS) to the proper authorities and to everyone subscribed to the service as well as aggregated and validated information for public consumption in the web," the university said in a news release.

 

It added people can see what an area needs for relief, while transparency is promoted since local leaders have a basis for requests from the national government.

 

The app, created by the team of John Noel Victorino (BS MS CS), Jhoanna Isla (MSCS) and Aia Sia (MSCS), and coached by Ma. Regina Estuar, bagged the Most Inclusive Technology Award and was one of five winners in the hackathon.

 

“eUlat” helps collect post-disaster damage and needs assessments from a community, barangay officials, survivors or volunteers, then consolidates the reports.

 

The “Readysaster: Hack for Resilience” sought to encourage developers to create web/mobile apps that can boost local communities' capacity to reduce natural disaster risks.

 

It also helps them better prepare for and respond to major natural disasters.

 

In turn, the hackathon is part of the global initiative "Code for Resilience," a project of the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).

 

GFDRR seeks to improve communities’ resilience to natural disasters with tue use of information and communication technologies. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News