Data science assists with COVID-19 re-opening stages

Co-hosted by the City of Los Angeles and Global Association for Research Methods and Data Science (RMDS Lab), the COVID-19 Computational Challenge created innovative solutions to determine the risk of exposure in and around the City of Los Angeles.

As Jeanne Holm, Chief Data Officer from the City of L.A., addressed at the opening announcement: “We want to provide this information to the public, so we will not only analyse the data but interpreting it. The result should be actionable and communicable.”

The Challenge attracted 405 contestants of 66 data science teams from universities and research organisation all over the world, including Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Michigan, Zhejiang University, Institut National D’Etudes Demographiques, and many more.

Throughout the two-week process, competitors received training and mentorship from RMDS Lab, UCLA Computational Medicine, SafeGraph, Snowflake, Esri, Gartner, and LA County Department of Public Health on open data sources, public health policies, data ethics, as well as the case studies for business.

The results were reviewed by a panel of judges from the RMDS Lab, the City of LA, LA County Department of Public Health, Chamber of Commerce, and academia. The winning teams won cash prizes of over $8,000 provided by sponsors who internship opportunities at the City of Los Angeles and UCLA Computational Medicine and the invitation to present at IM Data 2020.

“We are pleased to have this great opportunity to contribute back to our Los Angeles communities and to be a part of a potential powerful solution of assisting the reopening of Los Angeles, as our mission is to utilise data and AI to produce positive social impacts,” said Dr. Alex Liu, Founder of RMDS Lab.