Lunchtime Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Lead Data Scientist of University of Chicago - Center for RISC

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The University of Chicago's Center for RISC is an innovation lab for social change. The brainchild of Steven Levitt, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and co-author of Freakonomics, we try to generate breakthrough solutions to the world’s most difficult social problems. We then test and scale those solutions through a mix of partnerships with academics, nonprofits, government agencies, international organizations, and private corporations.
See more here: https://risc.uchicago.edu/

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Lunchtime Labs to accomplish?

• Develop, maintain, and scale a critical software application designed to reduce the incidence of spurious law enforcement encounters with released detainees.

SOLUTION

How did you find Lunchtime Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Lunchtime Labs over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Extremely Capable

How many teammates from Lunchtime Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Lunchtime designed, built, and ran a real-time, safety-critical software application used by case managers and law enforcement personnel to management a large metropolitan electronic monitoring program. The application ingested & integrated mounds of data from multiple vendors to produce alerts & prioritization reports designed to de-prioritize minor technical violations relative to public safety risks. These reduced the number of false positives and spurious law enforcement encounters with electronic monitoring detainees, reversed wrongful incarcerations, and flagged instances of criminal involvement for follow-up investigation. 
See more here: https://demo.emdecisionaid.com/

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• MVP built in <6 months
• Real-time/low-latency alerts generated and validated for over 15,000 participants across 4 years
• Reduction in false positives by over 80%
• Minimal downtime

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Agile project management successfully identified high-priority features to be rolled out first before others. Delays were only due to external partner data issues. Application ran with minimal downtime over 4 years. 

What was your primary form of communication with Lunchtime Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Lunchtime was extremely enthusiastic and proactive about learning new tools to fit the parameters of the job e.g. Elixir, spatial analytics. They were fast learners and quickly rose to the task, executing excellently. They were also invested in the mission and contributed meaningfully to tasks and ideas not immediately within their scope, to the betterment of the entire project. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Lunchtime Labs could have done differently?

None at all. They performed their role perfectly.