Zworks Hackathon addresses real Zionsville problems

Area software engineers put their best models to work as they tried to solve problems encountered by the Town of Zionsville over a two-day Hackathon event at zWorks.

The friendly competition challenged participants to build software that could help Zionsville Police Department distill its daily call log in such a way that could lead to easier pattern analysis, compile road and sidewalk closures for better communications from the town and a way residents can ask questions about town-related issues.

Cullan Ash, Nate Slabach and Romaan Shaikh built a platform where residents could submit a report and photo of a closed street. Someone at the town could then verify, and with a few clicks, have the closure posted on social media. The online platform would also have an interactive map that would show road work, closures, etc.

“It’s fun to be creative about things and make people’s lives easier,” said Slabach, a software engineer.

A hackathon is a popular event in the tech industry and usually lasts a couple days. The zWorks-hosted event was Oct. 22-23 and coincided with TechTober in Indianapolis, a six-week celebration of the region’s tech industry including hackathons and networking events.

The Zionsville event also served as a way to invite the community to zWorks’ new space at 170 S. Main St. The entrepreneurial and coworking space finished renovations this summer.

The problems participants tackled were submitted by the town. Executive Director Kelsey Clark said the hope is that the town can possibly use some of the solutions or work with the programmers to develop them further.

“We thought it would be a lot more impactful to bring the town in,” she said.

One participant built an AI tool, “Ask Zionsville,” where users can ask questions about town-related issues, such as how to get a building permit. The model searches the town’s website and pulls the appropriate answers, including who to contact. Another designed a model that showed how pedestrian and vehicle traffic could change when construction takes place for the downtown roundabout project.

Advances in AI — participants used chatbots and AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to build their models — have streamlined product development, according to Jeff Wraley, a zWorks board member. He said what used to take a year in product development can be achieved in days.

Zworks Hackathon addresses real Zionsville problems

Comments