82 Projects, 200 Students, 1st Data Visualisation Video Challenge: Who will best use open government data to improve lives?

Is ownership of public housing a sure win for financial gain? Will chances of returning to crime be reduced with greater social acceptance of ex-offenders? These were some ideas from participating teams at the finals of Government Technology Agency (GovTech)’s inaugural National Data Visualisation Video Challenge held today.

The Challenge, themed “How Open Data makes a difference for you and me”, saw over 80 submissions by more than 200 students from Universities, Polytechnics and Institutes of Technical Education (ITE). Following eight months of preparation and selection, 12 teams made it to the finals to create a video with data visualisation to share how open data could improve lives.

Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of Education, and Minister-in-charge of GovTech, was the Guest-of-Honour for the Finals. Dr Janil presented prizes to the top three winning teams.

The 12 teams used a myriad of open government datasets, including the number of seniors and locations of eldercare services, data on water consumption and water supply sources as well as recidivism rates to draw out interesting insights and present them through a video story.

“The Challenge allowed us to freely explore data and find meaningful use of data to improve our daily lives.”
MS WANG ZEJIA

From the datasets, the teams unearthed new insights such as the towns in Singapore that would require more eldercare facilities, the pressing need for water conservation in Singapore, and the importance of social acceptance to prevent ex-offenders from re-offending.

The Challenge, supported by six industry partners namely Amazon Web Services, Carousell, Cloudera, Microsoft, Google and The Straits Times, also displayed ability of students to cross-analyse data and come up with tools such as automating the income growth and key expenses of users until their selected retirement age. Please see Annex 1 for more details on the projects.

“It was a chance for us to showcase our creativity through data analysis and we learnt a lot from the Challenge.” TEAM N.I.C.E.

Ms Jacqueline Poh, Chief Executive, GovTech, and one of the judges in the Finals, said, “I am impressed with the videos and encouraged by the strong support from industry partners. Aimed at driving Singapore’s open data movement, this Challenge brought together students from different tertiary institutions in Singapore, and enabled them to see the usefulness of the open government data that is available to the public. GovTech will continue to cultivate this culture of co-creation with our citizens and industry.”

Ms Wang Zejia of Team TongQiang, formed by two female undergraduates from National University of Singapore, said, “The Challenge allowed us to freely explore data and find meaningful use of data to improve our daily lives.” Team N.I.C.E., one of the three ITE finalist teams, said, “It was a chance for us to showcase our creativity through data analysis and we learnt a lot from the Challenge.”

In line with Singapore’s Smart Nation vision, the Challenge encourages greater use of open government data, starting with students, to raise awareness, catalyse innovation and create greater economic value.

Launched in 2011, the country’s open government portal, data.gov.sg, was enhanced in late 2015 and has seen an increase of 40% in unique monthly visitors to about 94,000 in the last year. The number of quality datasets have also increased to 1,200 since inception. These datasets are available to citizens, developers, researchers and students to develop new ideas and make better use of open government data.

ISSUED BY COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING GROUP

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY AGENCY OF SINGAPORE

Related Resources:

• Annex 1: Project Team Write-ups
• Annex 2: Factsheet for National Data Viz Video Challenge
• Annex 3: Factsheet for Data.gov.sg

About Government Technology Agency of Singapore

The Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) is a statutory board formed in October 2016 after the restructuring of the Infocomm Development Authority. Following the formation of the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group in May 2017, GovTech is placed under the Prime Minister’s Office as the implementing agency of the Group.

GovTech works with public agencies to develop and deliver secure digital services and applied technology to individuals and businesses in Singapore. GovTech builds key platforms and solutions needed to support Singapore as a Smart Nation. As a leading centre for information communications technology and related engineering such as the Internet of Things, Data Science and Application Development, GovTech also enhances the capabilities of the Singapore Government in these domains.

For more information, please visit tech.gov.sg or follow us on Facebook.com/GovTechSG and Twitter @GovTechSG.

For media clarification

Mehul SHAH (Mr)
Assistant Manager, Communications & Marketing Group
Government Technology Agency
DID: (65) 6211 1557
Email: mehul_shah@tech.gov.sg

Joycelyn CHAN (Ms)
Assistant Director, Communications & Marketing Group
Government Technology Agency
DID: (65) 6211 1151
Email: joycelyn_chan@tech.gov.sg