A collection of three images depicting people moving by foot, car and bicycle

Data Science for Social Good projects begin

A collection of three images depicting people moving by foot, car and bicycle
The Seattle Mobility Index Project

By Emily Keller-O’Donnell

The eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program began June 11th with 15 fellows working on three project teams in collaboration with data scientists and project leads.

A project with the University of Washington’s Industrial and Systems Engineering Department and Disaster Data Science Lab will focus on improving situational awareness after hurricanes through the use of machine learning to automatically annotate damages on satellite imagery.

A collaboration with the Seattle Department of Transportation will develop algorithms to assign scores for travel mode choice, affordability and reliability for trips to common destinations in Seattle from various points of origin, using distance and time estimates for driving, transit, walking and bike travel.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education will work with a DSSG team to examine the relationship between access to out-of-school educational opportunities and student outcomes, utilizing data on graduation rates, test scores, student demographics, discipline and attendance.

View detailed project descriptions here. The ten-week program will conclude with project presentations to a public audience on August 16th from 2 to 4 p.m. Additional information will be available later this summer.