Data Science for the Public Good

Overview, from their website: “South Wasco County, Oregon, located in the state’s north-central border, experienced a significant economic decline in the 1980s, driven largely by the loss of timber industry. This was followed by the closure of schools and consolidation of students from school districts and an out-migration of residents that disrupted economic stability, community health, and quality of life. Working together, the regional Cooperative Extension professional, an NGO Coordinating Stakeholder from the South Wasco Alliance, and University of Virginia researchers are evaluating methods to construct economic mobility models and adjust the approach for application in a rural environment. To do this, they are discovering, inventorying, profiling, and documenting the data sources and their fitness-for-use, to inform barriers to economic mobility. These include indicators focused on local and regional food systems, tourism, and light manufacturing. The outputs will be the creation of economic mobility datasets presented in an interactive dashboard to support local decision-making.”