Lorain High School student and his father rework state coronavirus website for smaller displays (VIDEO)

LORAIN — The state's coronavirus website may work well on a computer, but leaves something to be desired when viewing on a cellphone. But one Lorain High School sophomore is hoping to change that. Aidan Kodman, 16, and his father, Jeff Kodman, reworked some of the website's code to allow it to resize for a smaller screen. The pair's project started a couple months ago, with Aidan showing his dad videos about the virus in China and going to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus map. From there, they navigated through a couple different sites before landing on coronavirus.ohio.gov. When Aidan pulled the site up on his phone, it didn't fit well, they explained. While all of the information is there, the statistics are stacked on top of each other, taking longer to scroll through. Their fix keeps all the same data but shrinks the size of the modules stacked on one another. "Originally we were writing a separate program to go get the data and display it on the website," Jeff Kodman explained. "But then we found out by looking at their files, we were able to take it apart and there's one file in there that describes how the screen is built, and we just made some changes to that and it dynamically adjusts." Aidan said he's been taking apart websites for years and rewrote a small amount of code to fix the issue locally − but it will take the web team in Columbus to make the change for everyone else. The Kodmans have contacted some state and federal legislators with the fix, and received positive responses so far. Jeff Kodman said they've been posting daily screenshots to Facebook, and received positive responses there, too. In addition to the website fix, Aidan and Jeff Kodman worked on a grid showing daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths by county. They are hosting both data sites on one of Jeff Kodman's servers, and are updated when the state website is as well. Aidan plans to submit the work for his Eagle Scout award, which requires each Boy Scout to complete a community service project as the capstone of their scouting career. Due to the stay-at-home order, his troop is not meeting, but he plans to get approval afterward. Once the county-level grid is completely up and running, the pair may take a look at other states' websites as well. Jeff Kodman noted many older people don't have a desktop computer to access the coronavirus website with, so a concise mobile view is important. "It's very important," Aidan said of the project. "I think it will change a lot of peoples lives. It will help them." To view the Kodmans' website, visit https://k2o.net. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.