{"421691":{"#nid":"421691","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Students Use Data Science to Solve Society\u2019s Problems","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFires will happen. But what if the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department could determine which buildings are at greatest risk of fire and prioritize inspections to focus on those sites?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe fire department is working to do just that thanks to a summer internship program sponsored by Georgia Tech and Oracle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe city agency is one of four groups participating in this year\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/dssg-atl.io\u0022\u003EData Science for Social Good\u003C\/a\u003E (DSSG), where 14 undergraduate and graduate students show non-profits and government agencies how data can tackle social and societal problems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther projects include maintaining and improving Atlanta\u2019s urban forest, increasing efficiency for a popular hotline system, and working with Georgia Tech\u2019s WiFi data to understand mobility patterns.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s important to get students involved in real-world projects,\u201d said Christopher LeDantec, co-director of the program and an assistant professor of digital media in the School of Literature, Media and Communication in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. \u201cWe are building out sustainable learning opportunities that allow students and Georgia Tech to have a wider impact in the community. \u201c\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe four students working with Atlanta Fire Rescue shadowed inspectors to learn not only how they work, but also how they create and use data. The students identified hundreds of additional commercial properties at high risk for a fire that should be inspected with greater frequency, said Matt Hinds-Aldrich, a management analyst with Atlanta Fire Rescue working with the student team.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe program is \u201chelping us make more informed and data-driven decisions on how best to allocate our limited resources as we balance protecting residents, visitors and commerce in our community all while remaining fiscally responsible,\u201d Hinds-Aldrich said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile many public agencies and non-profits collect data, staff may be overwhelmed by the volume or may lack the time and capabilities to interpret the information, said Bistra Dilkina, co-director of the DSSG program and an assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering in the College of Computing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe program shows groups how data can work to their advantage, while exposing students to different career paths, Dilkina said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cNonprofits and conservationists need data scientists, too,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech received more than a dozen project proposals, but could only staff four. More than 100 students applied for the 10-week paid internship and 14 were selected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERichard Huckaby, a rising third-year student in computer engineering, joined because he wanted to learn new skills and help people.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe\u2019s part of the team working with the United Way of Greater Atlanta on their 211-hotline system, which is a searchable database of city services. Students will suggest ways to improve and reconstruct the existing call menu to better organize incoming calls and reduce average wait time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s more to data science than commercialization or helping large companies,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo conduct their work, students pulled data from multiple sources and had to go through several steps before it was ready for analysis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe urban forest team working with the City of Atlanta and Trees Atlanta relied on tax parcels, thermal maps, city inventories, floodplain data and other sources.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cGames and apps are fun, but we\u2019re setting up a system the city and Trees Atlanta can build on in the future,\u201d said Caroline Foster, who will start Georgia Tech\u2019s masters program in Human-Computer Interaction next month.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents from all four teams will present their findings and recommendations during a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/data-science-for-social-good-atlanta-final-demo-celebration-tickets-17510983824\u0022\u003Epublic demonstration\u003C\/a\u003E scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Ponce City Market.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Atlanta Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program is an intensive, 10-week paid internship experience that places students onto multi-disciplinary teams working under the supervision of a professor on a problem that comes from a partner in the City of Atlanta or a local non-profit company. The program is sponsored by Georgia Tech and Oracle.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Students in Data Science for Social Good show non-profits and government agencies how data can tackle social and societal problems."}],"uid":"27918","created_gmt":"2015-07-07 10:23:24","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:52","author":"Laura Diamond","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-07-07T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-07-07T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"421671":{"id":"421671","type":"image","title":"Data Science for Social Good","body":null,"created":"1449254306","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:38:26","changed":"1475895160","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:40","alt":"Data Science for Social Good","file":{"fid":"202685","name":"dssg_tshirt_2014-e1422645415733-1024x649.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dssg_tshirt_2014-e1422645415733-1024x649_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dssg_tshirt_2014-e1422645415733-1024x649_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":670542,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/dssg_tshirt_2014-e1422645415733-1024x649_0.jpg?itok=2v3Oghi5"}}},"media_ids":["421671"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/dssg-atl.io","title":"Data Science for Social Good"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"15092","name":"big data"},{"id":"96631","name":"Data Science for Social Good"},{"id":"4044","name":"internship"},{"id":"167070","name":"serve\u2022learn\u2022sustain"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"},{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELaura Diamond\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.diamond@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}