Coding it Forward summer fellows join NYC Planning’s Data Engineering Team
This summer, the Data Engineering Team hosted two Civic Innovation Corps data science fellows from Coding it Forward. During their 10-week internship, they worked with Data Engineering to improve access and usability of data at NYC Planning using Google Cloud Platform. To learn more about their project, check out Piloting Google Cloud Platform to enhance data access and usability at NYC Planning.
Matt Crittenden
I’m a recent graduate of William & Mary, where I studied International Relations and Data Science. My background is in using data science for sustainable global development. My dual exposure to digital tech and international affairs equips me to address complex social issues with an open mind and diverse toolkit. My work has taken me from Washington D.C. and New York City to the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and the Philippines. My goal is to reshape data-driven decision-making and digital policy to support the well-being and values of everyone.
Spencer Simon
I am a graduate student studying analytics at the University of Chicago, and a former middle school science teacher and Teach For America Corps Member in Chicago. I am passionate about data-driven policy and using my skills to help people make more informed decisions in government, education, and wherever our decisions impact people’s lives.
Civic Innovation Corps
This summer, we had the opportunity to join the Civic Innovation Corps, a Coding it Forward (CiF) program that connects mission-driven software engineers, data scientists, product managers, and designers to civic tech opportunities in city and state governments across the United States. Corps members spend 10 weeks with a host office at the state or local level to use our data and technology skills to make government more effective and efficient for all. We were selected as part of the inaugural Summer 2021 cohort, with a 3.6% acceptance rate from more than 1,500 applicants.
CiF matches Corps members with host offices based on the mutual needs and interests of applicants and hosts. We were matched with the NYC Department of City Planning’s Data Engineering Team.
Matt: I applied to the Civic Innovation Corps because I identified a need for more tech-savvy public servants at all levels of government. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of effective local governance to response and recovery. I wanted to help build data-driven systems which would support informed decision making for post-pandemic recovery. Working with the city planning agency of America’s largest city was a tangible way I could accomplish that goal, so I was very excited to be placed with the Data Engineering team.
Spencer: The Civic Innovation Corps stood out to me because of their partnerships with local government offices that value innovation and technology and understand the importance of using data to drive decisions. Local governments have an enormous impact on people’s day-to-day lives, and it is essential they use data to ensure policy is benefitting people. So, I was thrilled to contribute my skills to the Data Engineering team where they are doing great work using data to understand and improve New York City.
Our Project at NYC DCP
The Department of City Planning’s (NYC Planning) mission is to plan for the future of New York City. The Data Engineering Team supports that mission by developing high-quality data products to inform analyses and decisions.
Over the summer, we piloted an enhanced data ecosystem for NYC Planning using Google Cloud Platform. With so much data available, the agency could address and begin to analyze some big questions about the city, such as measuring the impact of zoning changes. However, there were not robust systems in place to support large-scale analyses across the many datasets available. We sought to change that by creating one location in the Cloud to store NYC datasets and to leverage tools that provide easier access, exploration, and analysis of data. Read more about how we used Google Cloud Platform to create new possibilities for data at NYC Planning.
Our Experience
Working with the Data Engineering team this summer was an exciting opportunity to see the impact of mission-driven technologists working in government. We saw how Data Engineering accomplishes a lot — producing and maintaining datasets for the entire agency — quickly and efficiently through automated pipelines and modern tools, such as GitHub Actions. The team works collaboratively with others throughout NYC Planning, relying on end-users’ subject-matter expertise to guide the logic behind how datasets are produced.
We were granted a lot of independence in our work. We decided how to best approach a task, and had time to explore the data and tools we worked with. Of course, the Data Engineering team was always available to answer our questions or hop on a quick call to think through any challenges. We also had a daily standup with the full team where everyone shared what they accomplished that day and worked through any roadblocks together. We became a cohesive team through these check-ins, with everyone staying in the loop and helping each other despite not being able to meet in person. This support was very appreciated and essential to ensure we could keep making progress in a virtual setting.
Through the 10 weeks, we were introduced to many new technologies and learned myriad skills, not limited to working in Docker containers and virtual environments, running GitHub actions, and experimenting with several Google Cloud and Suite applications. We worked collaboratively most days and often had one person screen-sharing their code while the other was helping navigate and troubleshoot. We presented our work to data users across the agency and broader city government, including NYC Planning’s IT Department, managers and interns from other divisions in NYC Planning, and Corps members and their various host offices.
We hope to see our work with the Data Engineering Team in Google Cloud Platform be adopted more broadly across the agency and support a vibrant, collaborative, and data-driven culture.
