California 100 HackathonCalifornia 100 Hosts Tech Policy Hackathon at Stanford University

More than 60 students and young professionals from across California gathered at Stanford University Saturday, April 2^nd, for California 100’s first Tech Policy Hackathon. This Hackathon, co-sponsored by the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), did not involve writing any code, but instead focused on developing new ideas for public policy in California that leverage technology to improve the future of California. Participants ranged from undergraduate freshmen to early-career professionals, ages 18-35, and spanned the state geographically, including UC San Diego(UCSD), California Institute of Technology(Caltech), the Keck Graduate Institute, UC Riverside(UCR), UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Loyola Marymount University(LMU), California Forward, Canadian Solar, and San Bernardino Community College. 

“By bringing together top students and young professionals from throughout California, we are laying the foundation for young people to take interest and ownership in the future state they want to create,” said Allison Berke, Director of Advanced Technology for California 100. “We were impressed with the students’ ideas and creativity, and look forward to working with the winners to take their policy proposals from ideation to action in the coming months.”

Hackathon participants were tasked with developing a five-minute pitch for their policy proposal and were asked to consider the financial and logistical implications of their ideas as well as which communities would be affected by their proposals, who would champion the idea in the policymaking process, and who might oppose it. Helping to guide participants as they crafted their presentations were thirteen mentors and judges, including California 100 Commissioners and Advisors and SIEPR and UC Berkeley Goldman School fellows and scholars.

At the end of an afternoon of crafting policy and presentation preparation, sixteen teams presented their ideas in a rapid-fire pitch session. Projects addressed environmental policy, criminal justice, housing sustainability, human services, social media regulation, AI governance, tobacco control, transportation policy, and data privacy. The winning projects selected were: 

• Securing California’s Energy Infrastructure to Combat Wildfires (Solomon Kim (Stanford) and Matthew Kaplan (Stanford)) – proposes using AI tools to determine where tree-trimming and utility pole maintenance is most needed, and establishing a CPUC committee to assess algorithmic models of directing PG&E’s maintenance efforts

• Genetic Data Ethical Committee (Anna Capria (Keck Graduate Institute), Cristian Ponce (Caltech), Sam Irving (Keck Graduate Institute), Cimone Jackson (Keck Graduate Institute), Allan Phillips (Keck Graduate Institute), Sohil Joshi (Keck Graduate Institute), and Caitlin Caporale (Keck Graduate Institute)) – proposes reallocating portions of California’s public health funding to design guidelines for the state’s use and collection of genetic and genomic data, as well as processes for the privacy-preserving use and sharing of this data

• Reaching the Gold Standard of Privacy Law in CA (Avika Patel (Stanford) and Selena Sun (Stanford)) – proposes reworking California’s 2018 and 2020 state data privacy laws to match European Union guidelines for sharing personal information, including designing an opt-in interface for web services that collect personal information and tracking cookies, and pilot programs on CA state government websites

• Grab and Go Medical Centers (Arlene Nagtalon (UCSD)) – proposes a medical vending machine program for underserved and low-income communities, that includes medical supplies, contraception, and COVID-19 supplies. The vending machines would allow anyone to access these supplies at any time of day, interacting only with a digital vending machine interface

• Digitization of Police Reporting (Monami Mukherjee (Loyola Marymount), Sarah Olsen (Loyola Marymount), Max Kanwal (Stanford), Sidharth Duthaluru (UC Berkeley), and Daniel Jenson (Stanford)) – Building on experience with the Stanford Open Policing project, this team identified difficulties sharing and standardizing criminal justice information when police reporting forms and databases vary greatly from city to city and county to county. They proposed developing a standard template for what data is collected in a police report and when that data is collected (e.g., during a 911 call, during a stop, or during a search), and working with the GAO to make the data as interoperable and openly available as possible

The five winning projects selected detailed here received a prize of $1,000 per person, and California 100’s support to build their ideas into proposed legislation or local demonstration projects. Throughout the next year California 100 staff will help each team further develop their idea and provide critical mentorship that will give each group the support they need to make their proposed policy solutions a reality. The California 100 Tech Policy Hackathon is one of many projects that the initiative is funding and supporting to support young people in building an equitable, sustainable, and innovative California. 

About California 100

The mission of California 100 is to strengthen California’s ability to collectively solve problems and shape our long-term future—through research, policy innovation, advanced technology, and engagement—by identifying,  mobilizing, and supporting  champions for innovative and equitable solutions.