5 lessons on data science, storytelling and place from the Delaware Data Innovation Lab

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What is the relationship between data and storytelling?

We discussed this and more in Technical.ly’s latest live interview with Slack, with six members of the Delaware Data Innovation Lab (DDIL) team: associate directors Ryan Harrington and Héctor Maldonado-Reis and colleagues Jameelah Young, Nami Sunami, Mohammad Baksh and Mehak Gupta.

The team of data scientists, now working under Tech Impact, are on the heels of a couple of important deadlines for New Castle County CARES Act-funded projects and are heading into 2022 with new and ongoing community-centered work.

If you don’t know much about the lab, Harrington described it this way:

“DDIL is an organization focused on using data for the social good. We formed about a year ago during COVID. It came from observing how many insecurities our communities were facing: food insecurity, housing insecurity, economic instability. We believed we could increase the work done by professionals in those areas by applying different data techniques to problems. This is still true today! “

With six AMAers, the hour passed quickly, with multiple threads on different topics going on at the same time. You can read the entire convo on our public Slack in the #ama channel.

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Check out some highlights below; some answers have been edited for clarity.

Data analysis needs a story.

When it comes to this question of data and storytelling, the DDIL crew noted that one helps us understand the other through a more human lens.

Sunami, the recently added colleague to DDIL, said a narrative is important, if not imperative, for data science.

“Without a story, the data / insights will not be effective in many cases,” he said. “A history without data takes us down a very dangerous path. We need both to achieve both knowledge and effective change. “

The data can help advocates and service organizations fill in the gaps.

One of the ongoing projects is with the Delaware Housing Authority, where data science is being used to investigate the huge 75% discrepancy between Delaware citizens who need housing aid and those who actually receive it.

“DDIL is more focused on visualizing data / insights that will help end users make informed decisions while addressing these kinds of gaps,” said Young, one of the fellows. “As we repeat our projects, we learn more about who exactly end users are and how we can best create data products that enable them to make informed decisions. End-users on this issue can be housing advocates and organizers, policy makers, researchers, etc.

The data can support the reduction of excessive energy consumption by consumers.

One of DDIL’s projects is the Energy Efficiency Index and Map, which aims to geographically determine the need for more energy efficient practices using data from public and private sources, including the Department of Energy and suppliers of electricity.

Colleague Baksh said that factors such as the age of the home and average income play an important role in estimating energy efficiency.

“For example, if a person lives in an older house and the house is in an area where the median income is 10-20% lower than the median median income, they would expect to have older, less efficient appliances. which will result in increased energy consumption, “he said. The size of a house or apartment and the materials used to build the house can also be factors.

Delaware is an ideal “laboratory” state.

Asked what’s interesting about Delaware as a place to focus research, Harrington noted its small size and interconnectedness as advantages.

“Delaware is amazing how interconnected it is,” said the associate director. “It offers the opportunity to quickly and easily meet all the stakeholders you need for success. State leaders are easy to reach and easy to talk to. This really makes a difference for projects like this. Delaware’s size and interconnectedness gives it the ability to be a “laboratory” state, a place to work to address some of the issues we care about and then scale them down to other places that face similar challenges across the board. “

“Plus, Delaware is made up of fewer than 1 million people at the state level, which is fewer people than in Philadelphia alone!” added DDIL’s other associate director, Maldonado-Reis. “The population and size of the state allow us to explore and deploy meaningful tools with a targeted approach.”

Data can make communities healthier.

Especially during the pandemic, we see data on COVID-19 cases every day, but the impact of data science goes far beyond monitoring large-scale health events. A project that the DDIL is carrying out with the ChristianaCare health system, for example, targets other chronic conditions.

“The report covers the distribution of chronic diseases and the use of different care facilities in the state of Delaware,” said Gupta, a colleague. “This report will be useful in determining the prevalence of chronic diseases at the census level and the need for multiple health care facilities in Delaware.”

If you are interested in seeing a true DDIL partnership relationship, check out HCCD Innovation & Telehealth DHINsights which explores data on health claims.

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