NYC School of Data 2026: Grid

Welcome to NYC School of Data — a community conference that demystifies the practices and policies around open data, technology, and service design. Hosted by BetaNYC at CUNY School of Law, this year’s conference concludes NYC’s Open Data Week 2026 and is the TENTH edition of both SoData and Open Data Week!

Register for tickets: < https://ti.to/betanyc/nycsodata26 >

2026 is bigger than ever with 40+ sessions organized by NYC’s civic technology, data, and design community!

Day 1: the classic NYC School of Data conference, with programming across 12 rooms during 4 session blocks.
Day 2: NEW in 2026 – UnSchool of Data! The unconference agenda is created together on the day, with attendee pitches at the top of the day. Select sessions have been pre-seeded by BetaNYC to kick things off.

Our venue is accessible and content is all-ages friendly! If you have accessibility questions or needs, please email us at < [email protected] >.

Exit

1-202	1-203	1-204	1-205	2-109	2-112	2-116	2-119	2-300 - Cafe	2-301 - Auditorium	3-115 and 3-116 - Commons	3-201	3-301-A/B Combined	3-302	4-203 & 4-204

8:45am
9:00am
9:15am
9:30am
9:45am
10:00am
10:15am
10:30am
10:45am
11:00am
11:15am
11:30am
11:45am
12:00pm
12:15pm
12:30pm
12:45pm
1:00pm
1:15pm
1:30pm
1:45pm
2:00pm
2:15pm
2:30pm
2:45pm
3:00pm
3:15pm
3:30pm
3:45pm
4:00pm
4:15pm
4:30pm
4:45pm
5:00pm
5:15pm

Your Community By the Numbers: Intro to Census Data @ School of... 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Project FloodNet x CUNY Macaulay Honors College 2:30pm - 3:30pm

The Council-Agency Data Loop: Sharing, Tracking, and Improving C... 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Community Data Collection Workshop with the Data Vandals 11:00am - 12:00pm

Data for Whom: Exploring Inclusivity in NYC’s Mobility Datasets 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Bus Automated Camera Enforcement: What It is, How It Works, and... 2:30pm - 3:30pm

A Better Billion: The Math, the Map, and the Methods for Expandi... 3:45pm - 4:45pm

What Communities Are Asking For: Student Insights from The Peopl... 11:00am - 12:00pm

FloodNet - Flood Data Playground 12:15pm - 1:30pm

Open Data for Program Design and Advocacy: Using Air Quality Dat... 2:30pm - 3:30pm

ACE and the Race to Class: Improving Bus Speeds for CUNY Student... 3:45pm - 4:45pm

A Sense of Place: Quantifying Urban Ambiance in New York through... 11:00am - 12:00pm

Revamping the NY Open Government Site to Connect Contributions,... 12:15pm - 1:15pm

The Case for Low Traffic Neighborhoods in NYC: A Data Informed P... 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Battery Swapping Hub Spatial Analysis 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Blind Date with a Dataset 11:00am - 12:00pm

Empowering local communities through environmental justice data 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Dredging For Data: Where the Dataset Ends, Your Job's Just Begin... 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Building an AI-Powered Knowledge Base for NYC Community Boards 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Beyond the Thermometer: Mapping Socially Experienced and Empiric... 11:00am - 12:00pm

Making AI Make Sense Together: Designing a Critical AI Research... 12:15pm - 1:15pm

City of Nature, City of Data: How NYC Parks and the City Nature... 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Spatial Analysis of NYC Open Data using ArcGIS 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Machine-Viewing Gentrification Through Storefront Imagery in NYC 11:00am - 12:00pm

Making the Invisible Visible: Workshopping a New Open Data Stand... 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Open Data for Quality, Affordable Housing 3:45pm - 4:45pm

The Past, Present, and Future of Open Data Tools 11:00am - 12:00pm

The Future of the Unhoused: Equity-Aware Forecasts & Interactive... 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Exploring an Independent Perspective on Emergency Response Times 2:30pm - 3:30pm

What Should We Build Next? Open Data Challenges for NYC’s Future 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Worlds We Carry: What Should We Bring to Space? 9:00am - 5:00pm

Breakfast: Day 1 9:00am - 10:00am

Lunch - Second Floor 1:15pm - 2:15pm

Refreshments & Toast to 10 Years... 4:45pm - 5:15pm

Opening Session 10:00am - 10:45am

From Connectivity to Connection, Transforming Digital Equity Int... 11:00am - 12:00pm

Building the Public Interest Tech Workforce 12:15pm - 1:15pm

AI in Government: Opportunities for the Mamdani Administration 2:30pm - 3:30pm

How has 10 years of civic engagement through open data changed N... 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Lunch - Third Floor 1:15pm - 2:15pm

BLOCK BY BLOCK: Mapping Block Associations in NYC 11:00am - 12:00pm

Invisible by Design: What NYC Child Welfare Data Reveals and Era... 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Level Up Your Design and Data Skills: SVA’s New MPS in Data Visu... 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Exploring NYC Open Data With AI (Part 1: Civic AI Tools & Open D... 11:00am - 12:00pm

Exploring NYC Open Data With AI (Part 2: Making charts with Data... 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Civic Tools Lightning Talks: Build, Demo, Deploy 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Does this Building Suck (Energy)? Decoding Building Performance... 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Mobility Lightning Talks: Streets in Motion 11:00am - 12:00pm

From Data to Policy: How the NYC Council Turns City Data Into Ac... 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Housing Lightning Talks: Where We Live 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Why NYC Needs a Community Data Portal - The Missing Half of NYC'... 3:45pm - 4:45pm

Childcare: Day 1 9:00am - 4:45pm

Exit

1-202	1-204	1-205	2-112	2-116	2-300 - Cafe	2-301 - Auditorium	4-203 & 4-204	All Classrooms	BRIC House	TBA

8:45am
9:00am
9:15am
9:30am
9:45am
10:00am
10:15am
10:30am
10:45am
11:00am
11:15am
11:30am
11:45am
12:00pm
12:15pm
12:30pm
12:45pm
1:00pm
1:15pm
1:30pm
1:45pm
2:00pm
2:15pm
2:30pm
2:45pm
3:00pm
3:15pm
3:30pm
3:45pm
4:00pm
4:15pm
4:30pm
4:45pm
5:00pm
5:15pm
5:30pm

Socialist-Coded: Worker-Owned Tech Startups Transforming New Yor... 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Protecting Your Privacy in the Age of Surveillance 11:00am - 12:00pm

The Cloud is a Place in Brooklyn: Speculative Design for Communi... 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Gamified Hacking: Building cool things, powered by Open Data 11:00am - 3:00pm

Neighborhood Data Diaries: Storytelling with NYC Open Data 11:00am - 12:00pm

Public / Private tech partnerships in a post-DOGE Government 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Pre-Existing Condition: Performance and Group Discussion on Heal... 2:15pm - 3:15pm

Breakfast: Day 2 9:00am - 9:30am

Opening & Session Pitches 9:30am - 10:30am

Childcare: Day 2 9:00am - 3:15pm

Unconference Session Block 1 11:00am - 12:00pm

Unconference Session Block 2 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Unconference Session Block 3 2:15pm - 3:15pm

Data Through Design Artists Panel at BRIC 4:00pm - 5:30pm

Break - BYO Lunch 1:15pm - 2:15pm

NYC School of Data 2026

Get help with the event