Please join the Year of Data and Society steering committee for events in September! In the next few weeks, we invite you to learn about the Year of Data and Society funding opportunity, attend the first session in a series of brown bags profiling innovative data projects at Pitt, and build awareness of how we can apply a race- and ethnicity-conscious lens to our data analysis and data visualization work.
If you require an accommodation to participate in the events, please contact the Year of Data and Society Steering Committee at yearof@pitt.edu.
Year of Data and Society events are posted on the University Events Calendar and the Year of Data and Society website.
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Year of Data and Society: Funding Opportunity Information Sessions
Monday, August 30, at 12pm; Virtual
Thursday, September 2, at 4pm; Virtual
Interested in applying for a Year of Data and Society award? You're invited to join a virtual information session to learn more and to have your questions answered.
Academic Year 2021-2022 is the Year of Data and Society at Pitt! The Year of Data and Society provides the University of Pittsburgh an opportunity to think critically about the data we collect, use, and leave behind as traces, through our scholarly work, education, institutional operations, and our digital lives.
Students, staff, and faculty are encouraged to apply for funding to support activities connected to the theme. Applications for up to $8,000 to support new programs, events, curriculum development (either to teach about data and society or to use data in augmenting learning), research, art and creative works, technology design and development, and other possibilities are invited.
Join members of the steering committee on August 30 or September 2 to learn about the funding opportunity (and upcoming Year of Data and Society events!). Information sessions will be recorded and made available on the Year of Data and Society website.
Year of Data and Society Brown Bag: Project 412Connect: Bridging Students and Underrepresented Communities with Project 412 Connect Team
Wednesday, September 8 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.; Virtual
This talk is part of the Year of Data and Society Brownbag Series, which profiles innovative data projects at Pitt.
In this work, we describe some of the challenges Black-owned businesses face both in the United States and specifically in the city of Pittsburgh. Taking into account local dynamics and the communicated desires of Black-owned businesses in the Pittsburgh region gleaned from a survey, we determine that university students represent an under-utilized market for these businesses. We investigate the root causes for this inefficiency and design and implement a platform, 412Connect, to increase online support for Pittsburgh Black-owned businesses from students in the greater university community.
The site operates by coordinating interactions between student users and participating businesses via targeted recommendations. For platform designers, we describe the project from its conception, paying special attention to our motivation and design choices. Our design choices are aided by two simple, novel models for badge design and recommendation systems that may be of theoretical interest. We also highlight challenges and lessons from coordinating a grassroots volunteer project working in conjunction with community partners, and the opportunities and pitfalls of engaged scholarship.
Presenters: the 412Connect team:
- Sera Linardi, Associate Prof (GSPIA) CAASI Director,
- Adam Gerard and/or Juan Garrett (Riverside Center for Innovation),
- Ivy Chang, UG Econ (DSAS) Communications,
- Michael Hamilton, Assistant Prof (Katz) Research Lead,
- Collin Griffin, UG CS (SCI) Programmer
- Alex Jackson, MS (CMU Heinz), Data for Black Lives Pittsburgh
- Tyler Olin, UG Digital Narrative and Interactive Design (DNID)* (SCI Alumni) UX Designer,
- Alex DiChristofano, Data Science PhD (Washington University St Louis) Data Lead
Applying Racial Equity Awareness in Data Visualization with Jonathan Schwabish & Alice Feng
Tuesday, September 21 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.; Virtual
How can analysts, researchers, and developers apply a race- and ethnicity-conscious lens to their data analysis and data visualization work? How can we take a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) perspective to our research, data, and visualizations? Just as we carefully consider our written words, we should be equally careful in how we visually present data to our readers, users, and audiences, including the words we use in and around those visuals. Taking a DEI perspective means considering how the specific lived experiences and perspectives of the people and communities we are studying, as well as our readers, will perceive information and carry that information forward. In this talk, we discuss a variety of techniques that data visualization producers should consider when creating visuals with this DEI approach.
Social Justice and Tech Reading Group: Do No Harm Guide
Friday, September 24 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.; Virtual with in-person option to be announced
Join the Sara Fine Institute and the Research, Ethics, and Society Initiative for a discussion of Jonathan Schwabish and Alice Feng's Do No Harm Guide: Applying Equity Awareness in Data Visualization, which presents "ways to help data scientists, researchers, and data communicators take a more purposeful DEI approach to their work."
This discussion follows a presentation by Schwabish and Feng on September 21, part of the Year of Data and Society programming. Participants in the reading group meeting will be invited to offer their reflections on the talk and discuss it further in this informal setting.