BU “Shape-Up” Team Wins the MIT Solve Challenge

Led by Boston University professor Jonathan Jay, the “Shape-Up” team was awarded the “EveryTown for Gun Safety” Prize by MIT Solve, an initiative of MIT, with $100K funding. The team is 1 of the 32 new Solver teams and was selected from a pool of nearly 1,400 applications from over 100 countries. MIT Solve aims to advance lasting solutions from tech entrepreneurs to address the world’s most pressing problems.

The Shape-Up team is one of the eight Healthy Cities Solver teams. Healthy Cities Solvers focuses on learning how urban residents design and live in environments that promote physical and mental health. As urban gun violence is a persistent public health crisis, the researchers have found that simple physical improvements can reduce nearby gun assaults. Shape-Up is a web application that involves artificial intelligence and community input for prioritizing and coordinating physical cleanups to maximize gun violence prevention and directly engage community members in gun violence prevention.

The Software & Application Innovation Lab (SAIL), an initiative of the Hariri Institute for Computing, provided technical support to the project. By making a mockup of the application, SAIL connects the application with existing map platforms and allows users to apply filters for better search results. SAIL is a professional software design and development lab that serves as a collaborative resource for computational and data-driven research efforts across Boston University.

Professor Jonathan Jay is the Research Associate of the School of Public Health, Boston University. His study focuses on urban health, especially gun violence involving children and relationships between the built environment and health and safety risks.