2024 Projects

The final presentations for the 2024 Iowa State University Data Science for the Public Good (DSPG) program will take place at 9:15 AM, July 26th in the Student Innovation Center Room 0114. Join the presentations virtually though our Microsoft Teams Link. Questions regarding DSPG can be sent to dspg@iastate.edu.

DSPG 2024 Project Presentation Schedule

9:15 - 9:30 Introduction to DSPG Presentations
9:30 - 10:15 Presentation: Housing and AI Project
10:15 - 10:30 Session Q&A
10:30 - 11:15 Presentation: Community Capitals
11:15 - 11:30 Session Q&A
11:30 - 12:15 Presentation: Iowa Zoning Guide Project
12:15 - 12:30 Session Q&A
12:30 - 12:40 Concluding Remarks

DSPG Disclaimer: Please note that the data and results presented are student work. While the students strive to be as complete and accurate as they can, this is also a learning internship and therefore errors may exist. Following these student presentations, faculty and staff review the data, scripts and results before use in final publications.

AI for Community and Housing Development
Project Sponsor: ISU Translational AI Center
Project Leads: Liesl Eathington, Rakesh Shah
Graduate Fellow: Karthik Hanumanthaiah
DSPG Interns: Alister Gan, Cael Leistikow, Neha Tirunagiri
Project Blog Pages: DSPG 2024 Blogs
Final Presentation Video: To Be Recorded

The Housing and AI project is working on building a tool to help bring Artificial intelligence to housing and community development. The goal is to make the most up-to-date data available and easily accessible for housing and communities to make better-informed decisions. The tool makes use of a large language model to help answer different questions about housing and community problems, backed by the data. The tool could potentially help various roles like community planners, builders, and the policymakers involved in housing and community development. 

Iowa Zoning Guide: An Inventory Analysis of Iowa's Communities
Project Sponsor: Iowa Economic Development Authority
Project Leads: Jay Maxwell, Chris Seeger
Graduate Fellows: Tabassum Zaman
DSPG Interns: Blake Underwood, Joseph Betti, Naomi Mauss
Project Blog Pages: DSPG 2024 Blogs
Final Presentation Video: To Be Recorded

The lowa Zoning Guide project is a comprehensive, interactive mapping effort that will display housing-related zoning regulations by district for 327 lowa cities. The project will collect and analyze data on several socioeconomic factors influencing housing in these cities. Our website developers will then use the data to build the Online Guide to lowa Zoning map, providing comprehensive insight into the factors affecting the production and preservation of housing across lowa.

Healthy Community Capitals
Project Sponsor: ISU Community and Economic Development
Project Leads: Matthew Voss
Graduate Fellow: Solomon Eshun
DSPG Interns: Anh Le Nhat, Manjul Balayar, Lily Christenson
Project Blog Pages: DSPG 2024 Blogs
Final Presentation Video: To Be Recorded

The Community Capitals project seeks to explore the relationship between community capital indicators and the overall condition of communities in Iowa, aiming to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and gaps within these communities. The main work focuses on major events such as natural disasters, job losses, new job creation, school closures, and new opportunities for tourism and healthcare. The study seeks to identify the most relevant community capitals, trends over time, and the impact on community resiliency, by analyzing correlations between various indicators and comparing quantitative data with some qualitative insights.