Join us for the Narrative 2 Numbers (N2N) Hackathon, a one-day, interdisciplinary event focused on developing innovative tools and methods for rapidly collecting and/or scaling qualitative data collection and extracting key insights to advance public health preparedness and response. N2N is a fun, collaborative event, open to people of all levels of expertise (computer science, public health, data science) and backgrounds (quantitative, qualitative), with a particular focus on the field of public health preparedness and response.
How It Works
Participants will work in small teams of 3-5 members to develop tools and approaches related to the ten key hazards identified in New York City’s 2024 Jurisdictional Risk Assessment, a risk‑prioritization framework developed by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Note: Teams do not need to be formed prior to registering.
Potential areas of exploration include:
- Mechanisms to rapidly collect or scale qualitative data (e.g., chatbot-based surveys, mobile voice input, SMS-based reporting)
- Bot-enabled community engagement pipelines to gather real-time input during emergencies
- Approaches to deidentifying, structuring and interpreting unstructured data, such as open-ended survey responses, community interviews, or public forum comments
- Rapid analysis of online content (e.g., social media and online forums) to identify early signals or emerging themes
Final outputs may include working prototypes, data workflows, proof-of-concept pipelines, or analysis templates. The goal is to show what’s possible, not necessarily to produce a finished product.
Teams with the best projects will win exciting prizes, to be announced soon! Due to capacity restraints, registration closed on Friday, October 3rd.
Agenda
| Start Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 8:30AM | Registration and Breakfast |
| 9:00AM | Morning Orientation and Team Formation |
| 10:00AM | Hackathon Begins & Registration Ends |
| 1:00PM | Working Lunch Break |
| 2:00PM | Presentation Prep |
| 3:00PM | Presentations |
| 4:30PM | Break |
| 5:00PM | Awards and Networking Reception |
| 6:00PM | Event Ends |
Data Mentors will be available throughout the event to guide teams, provide technical support, and answer questions.
Featured Speakers
Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA
University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine; Director, Columbia World Projects; Lead, NYC Preparedness & Recovery Institute (PRI)
Jeanette Stingone, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor Epidemiology; Faculty, Columbia Center for Environmental Health and Justice in Northern Manhattan
(Columbia MSPH)
Judges
Lauren Houghton
PhD, Msc
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
(Columbia MSPH)
Elizabeth Kelvin
PhD, MPH
Associate Professor & Interim Associate Dean for Research
(CUNY SPH)
Dallas Maddox
MS
Higher Education Data Analytics and Data Solutions
(Amazon Web Services)
Eden Shaveet
MS
Ph.D. Student; Hackathon Co-Organizer
(Cornell Tech)
Gretchen Van Wye
PhD, MA
Chief Epidemiologist & Deputy Director, Center for Population Health Data Science
(NYC DOHMH)
Mentors
Moaz Abdelwadoud
MD, DrPH, MPH
Research Scientist and Senior Director of Training
(CUNYSPH)
Mustafa (Moose) Ali
MPH, CPH
Director of Technology and Risk Analytics
(NYC DOHMH)
Analee Etheredge
PhD, MPH
Senior Research Scientist | Public Health Data Science Team Lead
(NYC DOHMH))
Jeff Goldsmith
PhD
Associate Professor of Biostatistics; Associate Dean for Data Science
(Columbia MSPH, PRI)
Madelyn Goodman
MSc
Product Manager, Data Infrastructure
(NYC DOHMH)
Paula Kibuka Musoke
MPH
Qualitative Surveillance Analyst
(NYC DOHMH)
Kaveri Nadhamuni
MSc
Data Engineer
(NYC DOHMH)
Sathya Rajesekar
MS, MBA
VP Lead Software Engineer
(JPMorgan Chase)
Sophie Rand
MPH
Senior Product Manager, Data Infrastructure
(NYC DOHMH)
Nina Rembert-Wolkwitz
MPH
Senior Manager of Race and Gender Equity
(NYC DOHMH)
Get Started
Register
Join Discord & Github
Form Teams
Attend N2N
All registered participants will be invited to join an N2N Discord server where they can ask questions, share ideas, and form teams. Participants will also gain access to a GitHub repository which includes event details, resources, documentation, background materials and API links.
Location
All event activities will take place at the The Forum at Columbia University located at 605 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027.
