In light of public health measures, the CSDE Spring 2020 Seminar Series is now completely virtual via Zoom. We have an excellent array of speakers and topics and are excited to continue our tradition of sharing critical demographic insights via this new format. To register for the Zoom seminars, please visit our seminar webpage and select any seminar to register for it. Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to enter the seminar. But don’t worry, even if you lose that email confirmation, when you click on the seminar registration link you will be automatically directed into the zoom meeting. Please do not hesitate to contact us at csde@uw.edu should any concerns arise. CSDE wishes that you stay safe, healthy, and energized for this new Spring quarter!
Ali Rowhani-Rahbar Addresses Gun Violence Research and Funding in New Editorial
Despite the consistent gun violence crisis in the US, a lack of funding for gun violence research and roadblocks for firearm policy implementation exist. This is why CSDE Affiliate Ali Rowhani-Rahbar co-authored a recent editorial titled “US Gun Violence and Deaths” for The BMJ. In the editorial, Rowhani-Rahbar and his co-authors welcome funding from Congress for gun research—as gun violence is a public health crisis, Congress must allocate the federal funding quickly. However, Rowhani-Rahbar details how research alone will not suffice. As political divides create obstacles for implementation of policies to reduce gun violence, research “must include how to release the logjam of politics federally and how best to implement laws in communities”.
Rowhani-Rahbar and his co-authors conclude the editorial by stating, “federal research funding is welcome and long overdue. But until the research can spur action, the funding will do little to stop the crisis”.
Flexibilities Related to NIH Funding and COVID-19: Important Links
The NIH is well aware of the challenges being felt in the research community as institutions are closing, people are being asked to practice social distancing, and resources and attention are justifiably focused on public health needs. NIH is currently working quickly to develop answers to many questions through the following links: NIH recently updated its Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Information for NIH Applicants and Recipients website with a slew of additional FAQs, new funding opportunities, as well as a video message where they address some of the most common questions. Additionally, NIH has published a notice announcing that grant applications submitted late for due dates between March 9, 2020, and May 1, 2020, will be accepted through May 1, 2020. This notice applies to all relevant funding opportunity announcements, including those that indicate no late applications will be accepted. A cover letter providing a justification is not required. NIH will be extending the expiration date of most FOAs expiring between now and May 1. Be sure to read the notice carefully for details.
NIH also encourages you to monitor their website frequently. To help you identify updated content, the page now includes a link to page update history so you can easily see what’s new.
Deep Fake in Geography? When Geospatial Data Encounter Artificial Intelligence
This Friday, CSDE Affiliate Bo Zhao will present results from a study on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and GIScience. The recent convergence of AI and GIScience has been hailed for its transformational capacity in intelligentizing geospatial technologies, and such capacity could also unintendedly or purposefully generate problematic geospatial data. The more recent emergence of “Deep Fake” – an especially controversial use of AI, although not widely applied in GIScience yet, has stimulated widespread attention to its severe social and political impacts. In this presentation, Zhao and co-authors encourage GIScientists, geospatial data users, and the public to adjust the pure optimism about AI’s merits or pessimism of its drawbacks, thereby recognize and understand AI’s complex implications on individuals and human societies.
Build and Broaden: Enabling New Social, Behavioral and Economic Science Collaborations with Minority-Serving Institutions
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) supports research in many areas associated with our rapidly changing world, including fundamental research on human development, learning, and social behavior, and the surrounding social, economic, and natural environments. Research supported in SBE advances our understanding of people, social organizations and society in a changing world where there are new opportunities for human interconnectedness as well as challenges that affect our ability to live healthy and productive lives.
With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), SBE wishes to notify the research community of a new opportunity called Build & Broaden (B2) and invites the submission of conference proposals in FY 2020. Proposals should be designed to foster partnerships and build research collaborations among institutions that include at least one Minority-Serving Institution (MSI). MSIs include Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Tribal Colleges or Universities (TCUs), and other institutions that enroll a substantial fraction of underrepresented minority students, as described below1. The response to this DCL will inform future steps for B2 in FY 2021.
Innovations for Improving the Impact of Health Campaigns (Round 25)
Grand Challenges Explorations. deadline: 22 APR 2020 – 11:30AM PDT. We are seeking innovative solutions that accelerate the improvement of coverage, reach, efficiency, and effectiveness of mass health campaigns that deliver health products or services in low-and middle-income countries, specifically through improved planning/microplanning and focus on unreached populations. Specifically, we are looking for innovations in approaches, practices, or tools that dramatically improve the planning/microplanning that will lead to improved effectiveness of campaigns. We are also looking for innovative tools and technologies to more effectively identify and reach the most vulnerable populations when countries are designing and implementing mass campaigns. For more information, visit HERE.
Chair, Department of Health Services Research and Administration
The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) College of Public Health is seeking outstanding candidates for the next chair of the Department of Health Services Research and Administration. The new chair will be responsible for leading the department which may include developing new programs, strengthening existing programs, expanding the health services research and methodology profile of the department and growing collaborative relationships. The chair will also oversee the department budget, encourage excellence in teaching and leading the faculty in interdisciplinary efforts. The ideal candidate will encourage research and training opportunities for students, foster professional development for junior faculty and encourage leadership positions for senior faculty within the University, regionally and nationally.
Student Technology Loan Program
We would like to share information regarding the Student Technology Loan Program (STLP) as it relates to students who may be in need of technology items during this critical time. The program is available to all UW Seattle students who are enrolled during the spring academic quarter. Students may visit the STLP website anytime and make a reservation to pick up a laptop or tablet computer as early as Monday, March 30th. Additional considerations for spring quarter include:
- The program will centralize quarterly operations from Kane Hall – locations in HSB and the HUB will remain closed at this time
- To focus on anticipated demand, only laptop and tablet computers may be reserved via the STLP website at this time
- The check out period for all laptop and tablet computers will be for the full duration of spring quarter
- Other inventory items, necessary to support coursework, may be requested separately
Effective immediately, the program is adding 60 Apple iPad Pros (11”) and 60 Apple MacBook Pros (13”) to its current laptop and tablet computer inventory. Additional Apple and Dell devices are expected to become available in April.
Resources
STLP Website: https://stlp.uw.edu/
Spring Announcement: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qlbUBPdQFJt_jXS2fAOtORwNrBVtZqCb/view
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions regarding the program.
PSID Training and Research Opportunities
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Call for Proposals: Small Grants for Research Using Data from CDS and TAS |
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Submission deadline: 15 April 2020 |
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PSID announces a small grant competition that will fund 8 to 12 grants in the range of $8,000–$12,000 each to conduct research with data from the PSID Child Development Supplement (CDS) and/or the PSID Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS). Funded projects will generate papers that will be presented, along with other invited posters and presentations, at the 2021 PSID User Conference, tentatively scheduled for 16–17 September 2021. The goals of this competition are to encourage scholars to use CDS or TAS data to generate scientific and policy-relevant findings and to facilitate future research and collaborations including proposal submissions to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Call for papers: psid.org/CallForProposals Submissions: psid.org/SmallGrant |
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PSID Data User Training Workshop |
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Application deadline: April 17, 2020 Workshop dates: June 15-19, 2020, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |
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This five-day workshop will orient participants to the content and structure of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, its special topics modules, and the PSID Child Development Supplement and PSID Transition into Adulthood Supplement. The workshop pairs instructional sessions led by experienced PSID researchers and staff with guided lab sessions in which users construct their own analytic data files. The workshop is open to predoctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, college and university faculty, and professional researchers. Students and postdoctoral fellows may request consideration for a stipend to help with travel and housing costs. Applications received by April 17 will be given priority for enrollment. Learn more about the workshop and apply to participate through the ICPSR Summer Program at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/sumprog/courses/0217. In the event that the ICPSR Summer Program is canceled, an abbreviated, live, interactive version of the workshop will be provided online to admitted applicants during the scheduled week. |
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Call for Papers: PSID User Conference 2020 |
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Submission deadline: 1 June 2020 Conference dates: September 10-11, 2020, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |
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This conference will provide new and experienced researchers with a forum to present preliminary results and to obtain comments and feedback from experienced PSID data users and PSID study staff. Submissions are welcome on any topic, from researchers in any field, that use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics or its supplements. A total of 20 to 25 papers will be accepted for the conference, either for presentation or as posters. Call for papers: psid.org/CallForPapers Submissions: psid.org/Conference |
Senior Behavioral Research Scientist
Self-Starter and Highly Motivated Senior Behavioral Research Scientist Needed for Women in STEM Startup
Are you passionate about conducting research to drive real change to help women succeed in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering, and Math) field by informing these aspiring women in their career planning? Would you love to democratize the asymmetry of information available to few women in STEM? Would you love to see your research in practice, impacting women in STEM globally and improving their chances of success in the STEM profession? If so, you should consider joining Women in STEM Startup.
In this role, you will lead the research strategy to evaluate existing research, diagnose, understand, and surface drivers for key work streams. You will deep dive and analyze existing research that will provide drivers for succeeding in the work place. You will also develop research-based recommendations for ‘just in time’ feedback at scale.
You will use both quantitative and qualitative data and a variety of statistical approaches to understand behavior. You will develop algorithms and statistical models to surface personalized results to aspiring women at scale. You will work with an interdisciplinary team of scientists, developers and product leaders to inform and build product features to surface deeper people and business insights for our members.
What you’ll do:
- Lead research strategy to drive more effective decisions while improving the STEM women experience
- Conduct experiments, analytics, and compute behavioral process models for a deep dive understanding of systemic and individual level drivers
- Combine quantitative and qualitative data to inform research
- Develop and iterate on testing, experimenting, and evaluating content prior to launch
- Evaluate research work with respect to ROI and incremental improvements over time
- Partner closely with a small agile team
- Manage full life cycle of research projects (Develop strategy, gather requirements, manage and execute)
Basic qualifications
- Master’s degree or PhD in Psychology, Sociology, Statistics, or related field
- 5+ years of experience conducting research studies
- Experience analyzing experimental and big data from surveys and archival data
- Advanced Statistics (ANOVAs, regressions (ridge/lasso/hierarchical), HLM, longitudinal data analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis or SEM/Path Analysis)
- Proficiency in at least one statistics program (SPSS, R, SAS, Python, etc.)
- Experience using and researching with single-item measures
- Highly adaptable, creative, and thrives in a fast-paced work environment
- Strong organizational skills, time management, and program management skills
Preferred qualifications
- 2-5 years of experience conducting large-scale applied research studies
- Experience writing and communicating technical information for non-technical audience
- Experience with SQL, R, or Python, data warehouses, machine learning, and building automated analytical systems is a plus
- Experience leading complex (beginning to end) research projects
- Domain expertise in researching work-related behavior
- Experience providing thought leadership and consultation
We are looking for self-motivated science leader who knows how to work in a scrappy environment. They will get an opportunity to work closely with the Founder and CEO of the startup. The compensation will be commensurate to the experience and education of the candidate. Please send your resume and other relevant information to deesangeeta@gmail.com