If you have recently moved to Birmingham, new residents need to know that this is a city of innovation! If you notice ANYTHING about Birmingham that could be improved through the use of technology, the city wants to know about it!

Birmingham city officials, along with AL.com, Auburn University, the UAB Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Code for Birmingham will be getting together for a statewide “hackathon” from February 20-22. The event will be a collaborative effort amongst these technologically driven and innovation people, to come up with ways that technology could best serve to assuage some of the city’s issues.

Since the group will be focusing on municipal projects for an entire two days, they want residents to submit the issues that they feel are major and should be focused on.

A few city projects that are already on the table for discussion and innovation are:

1) Mobile Food Market: Turning retired city buses into mobile grocery stores to serve the areas that are currently lacking them.

2) Household Travel Survey: Tracking the flow of people within Birmingham and finding out why they go where they go and the way they go, each day.

3) Trail System Companion App: The Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System is currently being constructed and will need a way of tracking how many people use the trail system each day.

If you believe that there is a major project in Birmingham that could benefit from the use of technology, local movers want you to please visit AL.com for information on how you can submit your idea, and for a full list of what is already on the agenda.