And the 2017 Hubway Data Challenge Winners are...

When you’re riding Hubway and looking for an available dock, every single app that you use, including those from third parties, IS a data visualization, and is crucial to operating bikeshare. The 2017 Hubway Data Challenge presented by Microsoft was built to offer a challenge that asked participants to go deeper than your typical bike availability app, with experienced & interesting judges, fun & useful & valuable prizes, and the right partner, so that we could formally recognize those volunteering their time to improve Hubway.

25 projects from 22 entrants were submitted. Some were artistically creative, while others relied heavily on analysis to make their points. Some were constructively critical of Hubway's challenges, and one in particular used a combination of all those things... to make fun of us.

All the entries were fascinating (you can still view them here), and we regret having only 6 prizes to award. That said, we are extremely excited to share with you the winners of the 2017 Hubway Data Challenge:

	BEST OVERALL STUDENT PROJECT Max Bailey Rush Hour Opportunities View the full project An impressive cross-discipline project that compares 2016 Hubway trip data to Google Maps travel predictions, in an attempt to uncover the frequency of use and overall utility of riding Hubway versus taking the T during rush hour. Combining insightful analysis, marketing, and design, this project told a story in an accessible and relatable way.
	PEOPLE'S CHOICE Joe Cicero Hubway Bike Redistribution Optimization View the full project 1,300 votes were cast to determine the winner of the People's Choice. Voters had fun with this project, designed by a creative group of Hubway riders & fans, because it focused on the way Hubway distributes is bike fleet throughout the system, and it enables users to play around with and compare different locations, time periods, weekends vs. weekdays, etc., in an effort to enable Hubway to decrease rebalancing efforts and reduce costs.
	BEST DATA EXPLORATION TOOL Chong Yang Goh and Chiwei Yan Hubway Stations Availability View the full project 9 different projects were nominated by the judges for this category, and the winner was selected for highlighting different areas and metrics in an effort to encourage users to explore the data specifically around the stations they personally use. Looking closely to quantify the impact of station outages (full or empty stations), this analysis may be used for future planning and operations of the system.
	MOST ARTISTIC Sasaki Strategies team Hubway's Role in the Greater Boston Transit System View the full project The team of judges found the Most Artistic project to be a gorgeous combination of data and narrative, with an interactive story format that made the data more relevant and encouraged the user to explore the underpinnings of the system and how it connects to different neighborhoods via other forms of public transportation.
	BEST DATA NARRATIVE Chris Miller Only the Lonely View the full project Judge panelist Lisa Williams asks, "What can we say about the winner of the Best Data Narrative?: Who doesn't love an underdog?" This fanciful data visualization of the least-used Hubway bikes has a very rare quality in dataviz: it makes us laugh. With its creative concept, this project gave a few bikes in Hubway’s fleet their own special personality, with thoughts and feelings and desires of their own, that gave users a window into the rich inner world of a Hubway bicycle. As Chris describes his project, this is big data techniques to produce the smallest of results."
	MOST INSIGHTFUL (or Inciteful) Ihsaan Patel & Brian Ho The Value of Hubway View the full project One of Hubway's significant advantages over other transportation service providers is the effectively zero marginal cost for every ride. In a transportation value grudge match between Hubway vs. Uber, who wins? That’s what this project asked. Judges appreciated the comparison, in addition to efforts to put a monetary value in on each type of trip. Who had the better value? Check out the project to learn.

THANK YOU

• All the entrants for your hard work. The thinking and creativity was inspiring.
• The municipalities of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville for their support of cycling infrastructure efforts in the communities in which Hubway operates.
• The judges panel: a group of 8 very smart and busy people including municipal leaders, university professors, sustainability and park managers, technology directors, and nonprofit arts managers-- all of whom volunteered their time to review and provide feedback on the challenge entries.
• B.GOOD and their amazing staff for generously providing the food at both the General Assembly data viz workshop and the Data Challenge Awards celebration.
• Our sponsors & prize providers: General Assembly, Cleverhood, and Passim.
• ArtWeek Boston for supporting the data challenge as an official ArtWeek event.
• And last but not least, a huge thanks to our friends at Microsoft, title sponsor of the Hubway Data Challenge, for support of the Challenge and by generously providing the Microsoft New England Research & Design Center in Cambridge for the Awards celebration!