About the nominee:DeepWalk is a mobile app that allows city workers to scan sidewalks helping municipalities comply with ADA requirements and be more informed when making decisions about the hazards and needs in their community. Using the scan data, DeepWalk automatically generates inspection documents, construction documents, and accessibility plans.
Today, city workers inspect hundreds of miles of sidewalk with tape measures and levels to build their required accessibility plans. With DeepWalk, cities can meet requirements 15x faster with minutes of training — protecting them from multi-million dollar lawsuits.
Why they should win:DeepWalk’s scanning technology creates 3D models allowing officials to assess adherence to ADA requirements, a hugely untapped market in dire need of a scalable solution. This data is being used to plan construction projects to improve sidewalk wheelchair accessibility, as the Department of Justice requires every city and university to inspect their sidewalk system for accessibility issues, then create a Transition Plan to address those issues -failing to do this often leads to multi-million dollar lawsuits: Seattle ($294M), New York ($1.4B), Los Angeles ($1.6B).