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Sprints

Learn about sprints and how we tackle national challenges.

Sprints are 12-week product development cycles that bring together tech teams and collaborators to build public-facing digital products using open data.

The Earth as seen from space with a sky full of stars

2021 Sprints

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A small, 5-pointed yellow star 2021

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our economy and social systems have been tested in ways we’ve never seen before. Businesses were forced to respond rapidly to a digital economy, social support systems faced greater needs than ever, and even the way we go about daily work and life activities changed dramatically. At the same time, the ways in which human activities affect the planet may shift as we prepare for life after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following our 2020 Earth sprints focused on the natural and built environment, TOP’s 2021 sprints focused on a world post-COVID including society, economy, and environment. Technologists, community and advocacy organizations, and government leaders developed digital products to tackle seven challenges related to preventing economic and climate crisis for the most vulnerable communities, shaping the future of business, and redefining infrastructure, inclusion, and accessibility in the world post-COVID.

Problem Statement

Improving Minority Businesses’ Access to Capital

Challenge:

Develop digital products to help improve minority businesses’ access to capital

Agency

Minority Business Development Agency

Target Audience

  • Engaged Minority Business Owners and Minority Entrepreneurs seeking access to capital
  • Advocacy organizations supporting these individuals
  • Lending, financing and investment institutions

Problem Statement

Analyzing Equity in Federal COVID-19 Spending

Challenge:

Develop innovative tools that combine datasets to help inform community leaders on equitable distribution of federal funding. Teams are encouraged to analyze how federal COVID-19 spending has been shared with communities most vulnerable to impacts of the pandemic.

Agency

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Target Audience

  • Local officials and decision makers
  • Policy and advocacy organizations
  • Research communities
  • Data journalists

Problem Statement

Tackling the Climate Crisis through Climate-Smart Communities

Challenge:

Improve climate resilience planning in communities around the nation by creating tools that enable local decision making and facilitate federal support of local-level priorities.

Agency

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Target Audience

  1. Municipal, county, tribal, and state decision makers who are responsible for planning and action, especially in underserved communities
  2. Climate adaptation/resilience professionals who provide local decision makers with expert guidance and translation services

Problem Statement

Preventing Crisis for Low-Income Renters & Small Landlords

Challenge:

Develop digital tools to prevent financial hardship and housing insecurity by raising awareness of and connecting at-risk households to housing assistance.

Agency

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Target Audience

  1. Small landlords, at-risk renters, and nonprofits or legal organizations serving vulnerable renters and/or those at risk for homelessness
  2. Trade associations or other entities seeking to help small landlords retain their properties, financial services providers, and state, local, and tribal governments.

Problem Statement

Analyzing Housing and Migration Trends Post-COVID-19

Challenge:

Use data to help stakeholders understand post-pandemic housing and migration trends, and create tools that help to visualize and process this information for data driven predictions and recommendations.

Agency

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Target Audience

  • HUD clients and landlords
  • real estate developers
  • banks and funding organizations
  • public housing analysts
  • local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs)
  • non-government advocacy organizations
  • city and regional planners
  • tribal governments

Problem Statement

Increasing Content Accessibility for Multilingual Communities

Challenge:

Develop (ideally open source) tools to help serve the increasingly multilingual community in NYC and in cities nationwide, enabling them to access government resources for an equitable recovery to the impacts of COVID-19.

Agency

New York City

Target Audience

Local governments and NGOs who need to communicate with diverse language speakers in the United States. The majority of target users will be people who manage digital and print content within public-facing institutions. The ultimate beneficiaries of this initiative are non-English Proficient people.

Problem Statement

Helping Small Businesses Thrive in a Digital Economy

Challenge:

Develop digital tools that help small business leaders and their workforces to enhance their online presence and ability to process data and information relevant to their businesses in real time, thereby allowing them to be competitive in the digital ecosystem.

Agency

City of Coral Gables

Target Audience

Small business owners, their employees, and economic development professionals, as well as visitors and residents.