Adapting Technology
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Chris Eby is not a small talk kind of guy, but he has a lot to say when you bring up a challenge related to your business or your community. Chris is driven to use his technical insight to help others.
Spending three years of his formative early teens living in the Dominican Republic with his missionary parents taught him how to cross cultures and fit in anywhere. When he returned to live in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, at the age of 14, he just slid right in, adapting to his surroundings.
Today Chris lives in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with his wife and 8-month-old son. Being part of a tightly woven city community is important to him. He loves commuting by bike and loves the walkable neighborhoods that epitomize city life. But he does not shy away from a darker side of city life – the poverty. He volunteers through his church and other programs to help kids and adults, teaching computer and life skills.
Using Data to Adapt in a Time of Crisis
Chris takes that same ability to adapt to life situations and applies it to his work. Within days of the quarantine starting this year, Chris was frustrated with the information he was finding available to the public on the disease. Seeing other states develop Esri dashboards, Chris volunteered to create the Pennsylvania COVID-19 dashboard.
Getting the right data was vital. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had the slowest data because the data would trickle up from hospitals to county health departments, then state departments of health, and finally, CDC. Johns Hopkins University (JHU) was getting data directly from county health departments in most cases, or state departments of health when the county was not available. Chris chose to pull directly from JHU, with some of the data coming from Pennsylvania’s Department of Health (DOH).
Chris' dashboard broke the data down into understandable county-level information for all of Pennsylvania with daily updates. This dashboard was not just for Chris and his friends and family. He wanted to get it out to as many people as possible – sharing with the DOH, on the GeoDecisions website, and through social media channels. To date, thousands of visitors have viewed his dashboard. Chris continues to update the dashboard as more information becomes available, and the needs change.
Adapting a Tool to a Need
Chris also helped the Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation (PennDOT) make its custom workflow management tool--PennDOT Connects Application--mobile. Chris and his team were able to use Esri ArcGIS AppStudio, a suite of tools that make app creation quick and efficient, to do the job. AppStudio allowed them to develop a fully offline-capable mapping and data collection app that could be installed on many types of devices with minimal changes.
The team had never before used App Studio to build the mobile application from the ground up. Chris was able to create an application that allows PennDOT employees to complete forms, review maps, and make follow-up notes all offline. Since there are still many areas of Pennsylvania with little or no connectivity, this ability improves the team's efficiency and accuracy with information added to the application on the spot. Once they are connected to the internet, these changes and notes are waiting in PennDOT Connects to be accepted and integrated. Different versions are noted, and you have the ability to accept or reject to prevent conflicting changes in case one person was online while another was offline making changes.
“The work Chris did for the mobile application for PennDOT Connects has been great. Chris’s knowledge of PennDOT’s business needs, his precision, and his diligence, produced a solution that was exactly what we needed.”
Chris has shown strength in adapting technology to solve problems, and for that reason, he is a GeoDecisions GeoInnovator.
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GeoInnovator is a new blog feature where you will find our amazing staff highlighted throughout the year. Everyone is important, but the employee in this spotlight exhibits a contagious enthusiasm for producing innovative geospatial solutions. They are GeoInnovators, and we want you to get to know them.
