Seattle Teen Creates Covid-19 Tracking Website
By Robin Postell
Sunday, March 15, 2020
As the coronavirus has spread globally, misinformation has been the bane of anyone trying to figure out just what is going on. What could be worse in times like these than the lunacy of people grappling with unknowns?
Back in late December 2019, when the coronavirus was confined to mainland China with less than 1,000 confirmed cases, Seattle teenager Avi Schiffmann realized there was a lack of clear and accurate information. He decided to do something about it.
Schiffman, a tech-savvy 17-year-old junior in high school, used web scraping to create reliable data on the virus from many different sources, including official government health organizations (local, national, and international), and trustworthy news outlets.
Schiffmann coded his website, nCoV2019.live to cross-reference data to make sure it is accurate and relies on an online community of news sources to help with this.
Schiffmann constantly tweaks his coronavirus tracking website but doesn’t have to do it manually. Originally, it was updating every 10 minutes, but now it scrapes internet sources worldwide and updates by the minute.
Schiffmann’s website provides the latest information globally, breaking it down country-by-country, and state-by-state for the U.S.
The website also features a “Quick Facts” left sidebar that tabulates the total confirmed cases, total deceased, total serious cases, total recovered, and how many countries have been affected.
At the time of this writing, Sunday, March 15, 2020, at 10:17 p.m. Schiffmann’s site lists 167,404 confirmed cases; 6,450 confirmed deaths; 5,639 serious cases; 75,918 total recovered; and 119 out of 195 countries affected.
An interactive Google map offers an impressive perspective for the viewer, and also gives travel advice, general information on the virus, and quarantine tips.
Schiffmann is actively seeking an internship at the moment and is an online tutor of, “Graphic Design with many YouTube videos. The videos range from how to 3D model watches and weapons in Autodesk Maya, to hand painting models inside of Substance Painter. Tons of tutorials in Photoshop, Keyshot, Unity, After Effects, Coding, Cryptocurrency related videos, etc.”
Schiffmann is also a freelance 3D artist.
I am a high school junior with years of experience in web development, cross-platform mobile development, and UI and UX design using adobe and similar tools. I also have extensive knowledge of popular 3D modeling software such as Autodesk Maya, as well as video editing skills in after effects and premier.
Avi Schiffer LinkedIn profile
While the world seems to be burning around us, the children shine the brightest.
ROBINPOSTELL
Writer and photographer since age 7, I took it pro when I turned 21, freelancing for newspapers and magazines internationally. Now, I'm shifting gears looking for new adventures, both personally and professionally - the two have, frequently, been synonymous. A writer must adapt to the tsunami of technology and information in this brave new world. I'm game. R
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