Data Integration and Visualization │ Data Science

Combining and dynamically presenting data

Social science research targets interdisciplinary problems. Integrating data from a broad array of sources can illuminate important relationships across these issues. Our record linkage approach leverages emerging computational techniques for data integration and is especially useful when primary identifiers are not available or are shared across data sources.

When researchers can examine data in custom visual formats, it is often easier to spot patterns that might otherwise be lost. AIR focuses on data visualization as part of our suite of data analytic offerings, allowing our researchers to interact with data through customized charts, graphs, and maps. Our visualization capabilities range from off-the-shelf and open-source tools for visualizing complex phenomena to custom graphic design and data visualization dashboards.

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Featured AIR Projects

Public Library Survey (PLS) State Profiles

Prompt, meaningful, and intuitive data visualizations and reporting vehicles play a large role in AIR’s client recommendations and insights. AIR developed a data reporting tool with R and LaTex that automatically generates large numbers of quantitative data reports. Using this tool, AIR developed publicly accessible state profiles for the Public Library Survey in 2016 and 2017. These reports can also be found on the PLS website.

Kentucky Education-to-Workforce Pipeline

AIR is currently working with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to evaluate their education and workforce programming and its distribution across the state of Kentucky. To conduct this evaluation, AIR built an ArcGIS fully-customizable online application that maps education, industry, and wage data—as well as important social determinants of health—to explore opportunity gaps among students. In addition, the application visualizes networks of high school graduate movement to industry programs in KY’s state colleges and universities to help close workforce gaps across the state. The intention of this application is to evaluate KY’s current pipeline of students to industry to enable decision-makers to align the development of academic programs and resources that with current industry and workforce needs.

USAID/Burma’s Myanmar Analytical Activity

The Myanmar Analytics project (2018-2023) provides USAID/Burma with up-to-date essential facts and analyses to assist in its goals to strengthen Myanmar’s transition to democracy, expand economic opportunity, improve health and resilience of vulnerable communities, further national reconciliation, and promote greater international cooperation. As a contributor to this project, AIR leads the website development of www.mmanalytics.org. This website features a library of custom dashboards, contains the AIR-produced analyses and reports, public and private data sets, satellite imagery, and key literature on Myanmar for internal learning and knowledge management. It contains a curated library for USAID/Burma, the U.S. Embassy, and its implementing partners, providing a centralized location for data mining and other requested or required analyses. The dashboards allow users to track key indicators of conflict, democracy and governance, and health to identify trends in Myanmar and inform USAID programming.