Students of one of Italy’s most distinguished universities, the University of Naples ‘Federico II,’ were the latest group to participate in Moovit’s University Program, a unique crowdsourcing activity that benefits transit riders around the world. At the headquarters of TeMALab, the Territory Mobility and Environment Laboratory of the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, 25 students gathered with their professor, Gerardo Carpentieri, to map local lines on Moovit’s proprietary “Moovit Editor” tool to chart transit routes, stops and other details to further improve the information available on Moovit, the world’s #1 public transit app.

The TeMALab students participated in Moovit’s “Mapathon” over the course of a month as part of their curriculum with the objective to collaborate with Moovit as local editors known as “Mooviters” and provide important updates to the public transport network in the Campania region of Italy. Another objective of the project was to extend Moovit’s coverage to incorporate the areas on the outskirts of the larger cities, allowing transit riders to travel more easily from their smaller towns or villages to work.  

“At Moovit, we invest heavily in the development and growth of our community of Mooviters,” says Samuel Sed Piazza, Moovit’s Director of Partnerships in Europe. “In the last few years we have rolled out the Moovit University Program all over the world to extend the Mooviter program to students, and this is a particularly exciting collaboration with ‘Federico II’ in Naples as it’s our first mapathon in Italy.”

During the project, students and the professor of TeMALab:

• Mapped 21 different lines
• Integrated information from six different operators
• Extended Moovit’s coverage to the outskirts of Naples (which was already on the app)
• Considered not only locals, but tourists by mapping popular areas like Pompei and Capri

“Moovit’s University Program is fully incorporated into TeMALab‘s training and research objectives to foster integration between sustainable mobility development and urban planning,” said  Professor Gerardo Carpentieri of DICEA, University of Naples. “The collaboration between TeMALab and tech companies like Moovit is a natural continuation of the development of new ways and tools to overcome environmental challenges to encourage use of more sustainable modes of transport like public transit.”

The Moovit University Program is a global initiative launched by Moovit — from the United States to Europe and Latin America, increasing numbers of universities  are collaborating with Moovit to organize interactive and multidisciplinary professional meetings and courses like this for their students. You can read more about previous initiatives by clicking here.