This fall’s hands-on workshop on qualitative data analysis using ATLAS.ti will take place Friday, Nov. 2, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in Savery 121. Registration and details are available online. Space is limited, so please sign up soon.
Principled Data Processing: Goals and Practices for Auditable, Replicable, Scalable, and Transparent Data Work (CSSS Workshop, 11/1/2018)
Principled Data Processing: goals and practices for auditable, replicable, scalable, and transparent data work
Patrick Ball, Human Rights Data Analysis Group
If we have the data and the code, it should be easy to re-calculate results from work we did in the past. In most projects, this turns out to be difficult or impossible. In this workshop, we will discuss principles for data processing: transparency, auditability, replicability, and scalability. I’ll propose a series of practices that help work get closer to these principles. Some of the practices include:
- A task is a quantum of workflow
- Standardizing small tasks
- Using basic unix tools to standardize and link tasks
- Executable documentation: if it runs, it’s true
- Separating data and logic
- Testing: unit-level, file-level, project-level
Patrick Ball has spent more than twenty-five years conducting quantitative analysis for truth commissions, non-governmental organizations, international criminal tribunals, and United Nations missions in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, South Africa, Chad, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Kosovo, Liberia, Perú, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Syria. Patrick has provided expert testimony in several trials, including those of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Serbia; José Efraín Ríos Montt, former de-facto president of Guatemala; and Hissène Habré, the former President of Chad.
Patrick founded the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) in 1991, where he currently serves as Director of Research.
In 2018, Patrick received the Karl E. Peace Award for Oustanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society; in 2015, the Claremont Graduate University awarded Patrick a Doctor of Science (honoris causa); in 2014, he was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association; in 2005, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave him their Pioneer Award; and in 2003, the ACM gave him the Eugene Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics.
Patrick is on the Advisory Council of Security Force Monitor, a project of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute; a Fellow at the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law of the University of California-Berkeley; and a Research Fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Human Rights Science. Patrick received his bachelor of arts degree from Columbia University, and his doctorate from the University of Michigan.
CSDE Welcomes New Affiliates!
CSDE’s Executive Committee is pleased to introduce four of our new faculty affiliates:
- Soojin Oh Park – Assistant Professor of Education at UW. Park’s work is focused on improving the quality of learning experiences, particularly among children in non-dominant communities (e.g., low-income, immigrant, and/or families of color).
- Mauricio Sadinle – Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at UW. In his research, Sadinle develops methodology for a variety of applied and data-driven problems, including record linkage, nonignorable missing data and classification.
- Peter Catron – Assistant Professor of Sociology at UW. Catron researches the socioeconomic mobility and assimilation of immigrants. He is interested in how mobility and labor market outcomes are interlinked with societal institutions and economic structures that may condition individual efforts to make it in America.
- Gundula Proksch – Associate Professor of Architecture at UW. Proksch explores interdisciplinary practices in the built environment, novel approaches in sustainable design, and their potential to positively shape the futures of cities.
These affiliates bring a wealth of knowledge and unique approaches that enhances our community of demographers and collectively advances population science. We look forward to supporting each of them as they pursue their research. You can learn more about their individual research interests by visiting their affiliate pages, linked above.
If you are interested in becoming an affiliate or you know of someone who should become one, you can invite them to do so by directing them to this page. Affiliate applications are reviewed quarterly, by CSDE’s Executive Committee.
The First Autumn Biomarker Working Group is Today!
Today’s Working Group will discuss differences in biomarker results across assay methods. Different measurement methods or sample types can produce very different results for the same analyte, making comparisons across studies difficult. We will talk about some technical details that lead to this problem, and discuss the successes and failures of some large-scale standardization efforts.
The purpose of the Biomarker Working Group is to provide a forum for discussions of practical and theoretical issues associated with collecting and using biomarker data in social and behavioral science research. We hope to provide an opportunity for faculty and students with an interest in biomarker methods to meet researchers with similar interests from departments across campus.
Those who would like to receive regular meeting announcements by email may subscribe to the mailing list. If you are interested in joining remotely, please RSVP to Ellie Brindle before each session to receive instructions.
Jennifer Otten Investigates What Businesses and Anti-Hunger Agencies Think of Local Governments’ Efforts to Manage Food Waste
In the US, 40% of all food intended for human consumption is wasted, incurring economic, environmental, and social consequences as well as posing equity concerns. Local governments are well positioned to support innovations and equity-oriented approaches for tackling food waste issues at a systems-level. Yet, how do food-generating businesses and anti-hunger agencies think local governments could work with them to address food waste?
To answer this question, CSDE Affiliate Jennifer Otten, Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at UW, interviewed 20 agencies and businesses in her recent paper, “Commercial and Anti-Hunger Sector Views on Local Government Strategies for Helping to Manage Food Waste.” The study presents the key challenges of Seattle’s agencies and food-generating businesses to addressing food waste prevention, recovery, and composting. Strategies recommended for local governments included: committing resources that enable a systems approach; helping to standardize metrics and normalize waste audits; and supporting the optimal operation of the emergency food system by helping improve infrastructure and efficiency.
Kam Wing Chan Sheds Light on Trends Regarding Children of Migrants in China
“Children – including those of migrants – are China’s future.” CSDE Affiliate Kam Wing Chan, Geography Professor at UW, investigates the trends, living arrangements, age-gender structure and geography of children of migrants in China, which now make up almost 40% of all children in the country. By distilling 2000-2016 data from multiple large national surveys and assessing the small rural left-behind children population figures, his recent paper analyzes the major aspects of children of migrants.
The authors develop a method to estimate the left-behind children population generated by migrants in each provincial destination, linking up adult migrants, migrant children, and left-behind children in the origins and destinations. This framework allows them to pinpoint a major driver of left-behind children and hence to identify provinces needing the most attention in national and provincial efforts to alleviate the problem of left-behind children.
UW Symposium on Family Planning, Contraception and Abortion
The symposium’s goal is to highlight UW strengths in this domain and identify opportunities for future projects and collaboration. We invite faculty, staff, and fellows actively working in the field of family planning, contraception, and abortion to participate in this symposium to guide these efforts as a UW community. CSDE Director Sara Curran and Affiliate Adrian Raftery will be giving two separate and brief presentations starting at 11 am, regarding their research related to demography, fertility, and contraceptive prevalence.
Please make sure to register to attend. The symposium will take place instead of CSDE’s regularly scheduled seminar. See you there!
Be The Match and Why Race Matters Kick-Off Event! (WholeU, 11/5/18)
With the multiracial community becoming one of the fastest growing demographics in North America, having a multiethnic ancestry is not just about identity, but a matter of saving other peoples’ lives.
That’s the bold, yet essential declaration at the center of the acclaimed documentary Mixed Match, an important human story told from the perspective of mixed race blood cancer patients who are forced to reflect on their multiracial identities and complex genetics as they struggle with a seemingly impossible search to find marrow donors. The film explores the need to find mixed ancestry marrow and cord blood donors for stem cell transplants to save the lives of multiethnic patients suffering from life threatening blood diseases such as leukemia.
Join The Whole U and UW and community expert panelists in exploring the role race plays in medicine and the essential need for multiethnic donors worldwide at a free screening of Mixed Match on November 5 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the HUB South Ballroom.
This live action and animated film is a dramatic journey focusing on the main characters’ struggles to survive against incredible odds. The event will also feature a panel discussion with filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns, Alexes Harris (professor of sociology at the University of Washington and CSDE affiliate who benefitted from a bone marrow transplant), and more!
The University of Washington is proud to be a community supporter of Be the Match, an education, research and advocacy organization managing the world’s largest bone marrow registry. Research and treatment done in collaboration between the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the UW—including the first live marrow transplant—was integral to the establishment of the first bone marrow registry and we are excited to continue to serve in this life-saving mission. As the first institution to be a community supporter of Be the Match, the UW is proud to forward these traditions.
Call for Abstracts: 2019 Population and Public Policy Conference (Albuquerque, 2/8-2/9/2019)
Keynotes:
- Professor Douglas Massey, “Doubling Down on a Bad Bet: Immigration Policy Before and After Trump”
- Tim Olson, U.S. Census Bureau, “What You Can Do To Make Sure the 2020 Census Reflects Who We Are”
Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your research, technology application or community-based work.
October 31, 2018 – submission deadlines of abstracts for individual papers, round tables, panels or posters.
Research Assistant, Semantics of Biological Processes Group
The NIH has funded a new “Center for Reproducible Biomedical Modeling“, aimed at helping scientists build more reproducible and comprehensible predictive mathematical models of biological phenomena and disease. As part of these goals, the Semantics of Biological processes group, will build from prior work developing the SemGen toolset, and focus on improving and semi-automating the semantic annotation process. In this step, modelers and curators provide semantic annotations for models, using RDF, the language of the semantic web.
The initial work for this RA-ship includes the development of an API, written in C/C++ to read and write these semantic annotation files, providing consistent annotation capabilities to a group of tool developers. This API will build from an existing Java-based API for the SemGen tool.
The RA-ship will start in Winter Q, and will continue for at least two quarters. (This is a standard, 50% RA-ship, with tuition). Please send CV, detailing research and programming experience, and a letter of interest to gennari@uw.edu . Enthusiasm and a willingness-to-learn will be important attributes of the successful applicant.
If you are looking to be part of cutting-edge research, want to make an impact on science, and want to work with a fun, diverse group of scientists, please apply for this unique opportunity!