Resources
Technology resources
Accessing software in the cloud
RStudio Cloud: https://rstudio.cloud/
Google Colaboratory: https://colab.research.google.com/
Syzygy: https://utoronto.syzygy.ca/
Tableau:
- Tableau Public: https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s
- Tableau Desktop - free student license: https://www.tableau.com/academic
Code repository, version control, and collaboration
GitHub: https://www.github.com
Gitlab: https://gitlab.com/
Happy Git with R: https://happygitwithr.com/
R Shiny resources:
- Deploy Shiny app on shinyapps.io: https://docs.rstudio.com/shinyapps.io/getting-started.html
- Shiny tutorials: https://shiny.rstudio.com/tutorial/
- Statistical Computing RShiny Notes: Part I and Part II
MyMedia
You will host your videos or screen casts using MyMedia.
Video Recording
- Apple Quicktime for screen recording: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/quicktime-player/qtp97b08e666/mac
- Windows 10 built-in screen recording functionality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfPbr1mRDuo
- Kap for screen recording: https://getkap.co/
- You can record presentation in Zoom. This is especially helpful for team presentations where all team members are available to join the Zoom meeting at the same time.
- Instructions for recording presentations in Zoom: https://kb.siue.edu/61721
Example Topics
Below are a few suggestions to get you started, but you should feel welcomed to focus on a question different than these.
- How has the pandemic affected the airline industry and what are some potential downstream effects of this other than economic strain on the industry?
- As a student, how would you quantify the effect of the pandemic on your education?
- How has the spread of the pandemic affected people’s opinion on government tracking and privacy?
- What is the effect of the social distancing / shelter in place / lockdown recommendations and policies on pollution?
- How can we quantify the potential effects on nutrition and general health of the public, outside of those affected by the virus?
- How are refugees affected by COVID-19?
Data sources
You can use any dataset that is publicly available or openly licensed. As you choose data for the competition, be mindful of the unit of analysis as well as the credibility of the data source.
If you need help finding data, below are a few data sources you are welcome to (but not required) to use:
US community data
- Economic data at the county level: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/county-level-data-sets/
- County population by characteristics: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-counties-detail.html
Transportation data
- National Household Transportation Survey: https://nhts.ornl.gov/
- US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics https://www.bts.gov/browse-statistical-products-and-data
- US DOT Border Crossing Data https://www.bts.gov/content/border-crossingentry-data
- Niagara Falls Bridge Commission Traffic Statistics: https://www.niagarafallsbridges.com/index.php/services/traffic-statistics
Pollution data
- Real-time air quality index: https://waqi.info (requires web scraping)
- Berkeley Earth: http://berkeleyearth.org/air-quality-real-time-map/
- AirNow: https://airnow.gov
- IQ Air: https://www.iqair.com/earth
- NASA Air Quality: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time/hazards-and-disasters/air-quality
General Health Data
- State Tobacco Activities: https://www.cdc.gov/statesystem/
- State Behavioral Risk Factors: https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/data_tools.htm
- Data on Excessive Drinking: https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/data-stats.htm
COVID-19 Health Data
- US County-level data from the NY Times: https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data
- Hopkins COVID repo: https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19
- Tableau COVID resources: https://www.tableau.com/covid-19-coronavirus-data-resources
- Harvard Dataverse: Medicine, Health and Life Sciences search
- covid19-r: https://github.com/mine-cetinkaya-rundel/covid19-r#data
- Towards Data Science: Top 35 R resources on Novel COVID-19 Coronavirus