On Jan. 31, students, library staff, researchers, and community members gathered at the University of Florida’s (UF) Marston Science Library for the Environmental Monitoring through Education, Research, and Geospatial Engagement (EMERGE) NASA Data Hackathon. This initiative empowers libraries, educators, and individuals to engage in public health and environmental science using real-world data tools and citizen science. At the center of EMERGE is NASA’s Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer app, which allows anyone with a smartphone to collect and explore data on mosquito habitats, land cover, clouds, and more.
From morning workshops to an end-of-day sprint, participants spent the day transforming real environmental data into maps, dashboards, infographics, and practical insights supporting public health and environmental decision-making. The event was hosted by the Geospatial Digital Informatics Lab (part of the Geography Department at UF), SciStarter (the world’s largest citizen science database), and Florida Community Innovation (a civic technology nonprofit), with support from NASA and UF Libraries.
The hackathon gave participants a chance to work directly with these volunteer-collected datasets and see how local observations connect to global research. Participants had access to a digital textbook created by the GeoDI Lab that explains how to download, process, visualize, and analyze GLOBE Observer data. At the hackathon, 13 teams came together to build projects analyzing GLOBE data or reenvisioning data collection for the app. You can explore the gallery of projects online here!
Celebrating Hackathon Winners
The following participants won honors in their categories.
APP IMPROVEMENT TRACK
Winner — Mosquito Tracker
Matheus Kunzler Maldaner
Hoang Anh Mai
Luana Kunzler Maldaner
Nicolas Murguia
Alfred Navarro
Honorable Mention — App Improvement Brief
Kelly Muma
Seth Paul
User Interface Recognition — GLOBE Observer, Simplified
Kaushal Thota
Sparsh Mogha
ADVANCED TRACK
Winner — Epidemiological Vector Mapping System
Aseel Ismail
Shreya Shanmugam
Devadarshini Dhandapani
Shivani Chandrasekar
Winner — GeoDude
Siddharth Nahar
Anushri N R
Avantika Holla
Matthew Losito
Honorable Mention — Mosquito Habitat Observations and Wildfire Hazard in Florida
Nancy Murphy
Philippa Burgess
Mapping Recognition — Mosquitos Worldwide Project
Ayesha Malligai M.
INTERMEDIATE TRACK
Winner — Swarm Sense
Isabella Bodea
Evan Mullins
Aashita Rai
Honorable Mention — Mosquito Risk Mapping
RamyaLakshmi KS
Delilah Penate
Thomas Barbato
Amit Rajpurkar
Data Analysis Recognition — Bias and Uncertainty in Reported Mosquito Habitat Data
Gabriel Dos Santos
Satyabrata Das
Matthew White
Dylan Aaron
BEGINNER TRACK
Winner — Beginner Track EMERGE Project
Breanna Blackwood
Demitri Tu
Masha Belyaeva
Elizabeth Nguyen
Tommy Lin
Honorable Mention — Mosquito Predicting with Globe Observer Data
Novaarcoid Rajpurkar
FIELD TRACK
Winner — Field Track Data Collection for Mosquito Habitat
Wei Liu
Yichan Li
How You Can Get Involved
If you’re interested in civic tech, public-interest data, and community-centered research, you’re invited to get involved with Florida Community Innovation (FCI), one of the Hackathon partners. The FCI works year-round with students and community partners to build accessible tools, maps, and public resources and welcomes new collaborators from a wide range of backgrounds. Get started with FCI by visiting floridainnovation.org, and email info@floridainnovation.org to join one of their Wednesday meetings at 6 p.m. EDT to be matched with a project (like building games for Miami-Dade’s Recyclepedia app, helping create an AI tool for social workers in Orlando, and more).
Interested in shaping future EMERGE events? Apply to join a planning committee to help design the next hackathon! Committee members will help think through formats, tracks, accessibility, and community partnerships, with the goal of keeping future events welcoming, practical, and responsive to local needs. Organizers will receive a small honorarium. For more information, send an email to Caroline Nickerson: caroline.nickerson@floridainnovation.org
To start doing NASA science from your own neighborhood or backyard, you can also download the GLOBE Observer app! This app makes it possible for anyone to collect and explore data on mosquito habitats, land cover, and more!
The EMERGE program is made possible with the support of NASA through the Citizen Science Seed Funding Program, with the goal of enabling more scientists to develop and use citizen science techniques in their work.