STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is hosting its first bus hackathon on Saturday, March 5, to gather ideas and proposals from bus enthusiasts with coding experience to improve and transform Staten Island's transit system.

The one-day-only event will take place at the Rudin Center in Manhattan and aims to challenge data-minded transit customers to find solutions for faster, more reliable transit for Islanders.

"The hackathon is an invitation for feedback from our tech-savvy customers as well as an opportunity for New York City Transit to further use innovation and technology to provide our customers with better service," said Darryl Irick, senior vice president, Department of Buses, and president of the MTA Bus Company.

To gather these ideas, ridership and performance data will be released to the public for the first time. Data sets provided will include ridership data for express bus routes and comprehensive archival performance data for express and local bus routes.

The hackathon is open to the public, but requires registration via this link by Saturday, Feb. 20.

Judge and prize information for the best solutions will be announced closer to the event.

The hackathon is a partnership with the TransitCenter and New York University's Rudin Center for Transportation. Additional support will be provided by Google and CartoDB, with representatives from both organizations available onsite for technical assistance.

Complementing the hackathon, public workshops are being held by the MTA to study bus services and customer needs on Staten Island.

A workshop is scheduled for Tuesday night at Staten Island Technical High School, where transit representatives will gather information from residents.