METRANS Research Assistants, John Ho and Julia Brown, were recognized as first place winners for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Story Maps Student Challenge. SCAG and Esri, a software company specializing in mapping and spatial data analytics, organized the Challenge for college and university students to display their research to more than 1,000 elected officials, planning practitioners and various public, private and non-profit stakeholders. Winners of the challenge were awarded a $1,000 scholarship.

Esri Story Maps are web applications that let authors combine maps with narrative text, striking images, and multimedia, including video. The applications are designed to be attractive and usable by anyone, which makes them great for education and outreach, either to the general public or to a specific audience.

Brown and Ho’s first place Story Map analyzed and identified regional multi-modal transportation conflicts found in urban areas. In their story map, Brown and Ho addressed passenger freight conflicts in Los Angeles and discussed the data collection tool that they developed to identify freight planning priorities in urban environments.

SCAG recognized Brown and Ho’s Story Map at their annual Regional Conference and General Assembly held on May 4-5 at the JW Marriot Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, where they were treated to complimentary registration and accommodations. At the event, both METRANS Research Assistants had the opportunity to meet representatives of SCAG, Esri, local legislators, city planners, and the other student competitors.

“I was very inspired to see SCAG’s efforts towards promoting open data, which offers transparency among public organizations, as well as providing students the opportunity to find solutions and detect problems,” Ho said. “Listening to Esri’s CEO, Jack Dangermond, talk about the implementation of GIS around the world was very impactful and gave validation to this type of research.”

“This has been an incredibly valuable experience. I’m grateful for the opportunity to meet and discuss with other students within the geospatial and urban planning field, as well as gain insightful feedback from SCAG staff and local government representative from across the region,” Brown said. “It was also inspiring to see municipalities working tirelessly to create and sustain safe and healthy communities throughout Southern California.”

Brown and Ho are students of Master of Science in Geographic Information Science (MSGISci) at CSULB and will be graduating in August 2017.

To see their Story Map Challenge submission, click here.