Kayla Patel

Kayla Patel analyzes data to help departments within the City of Boston solve problems and make informed decisions. One aspect of Kayla’s work is presenting data in a way that’s easily understood. For example, Kayla worked with Boston Fire to create a series of dashboards. These dashboards helped the department track vital information, like firefighter hours, sick time off, and swapped shifts. The City also uses data to keep the City safe. Through her work, Kayla helped policymakers better understand the problem of human trafficking. She developed a dashboard that pulled information in from Backpage, Google, and, records from Boston Police. That dashboard gives the Mayor, cabinet chiefs, and police the ability to monitor activities in the Boston area. With the City relying more and more on data, Kayla is at the forefront of using it for problem solving. She and another team member, Alex Chen, are currently working on a way to use Waze data to help address traffic congestion.