Durham+ is a new vertical offered within Duke University’s Data+ program, a full-time, ten-week summer research experience that welcomes Duke undergraduate and masters students interested in exploring new data-driven approaches to interdisciplinary challenges.
Browse our Durham+ projects below.
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2026 Projects
2026 Data+ projects have been posted! See the list.
Durham+ Projects
GoDurham requires a database to conduct condition assessments for over 880 bus stops to support effective maintenance management and ensure regulatory compliance. According to the 2023 Durham County Transit Plan, 1,064 of 1,324 bus stops lack ADA-compliant paved landing pads, and outdated condition data prevents efficient prioritization of the $34.3...
In coordination with the Duke Office of Community Health, Duke School of Medicine’s Root Causes, and with close alignment to OCH’s Faith & Health Initiative and the City–County Durham Resiliency Hub work, this project uses data science, GIS, and visualization to map and integrate community assets and risks that can support emergency preparedness and response—especially for food...
A team of students led by Pratt professor Rachel Beaudoin will develop generalizable models to quantify the greenhouse gas footprint of Durham organizations and to assess the impacts of decarbonization projects. Students will work with a dataset of Durham Public Schools’ historical energy and procurement data to develop a model...
Explore Climate and Health Equity with Duke’s REGAL Lab! Join the Research to Eliminate Global Cancer Disparities (REGAL) Lab at the Duke University School of Medicine for a hands-on research experience on climate and health equity. Students will compile and analyze North Carolina county-level environmental indicators, such as air quality,...
This team of students will study a dataset that combines data from the Durham County Detention Facility and Duke Health, with an interest in examining the intersection of mental illness and incarceration. This summer’s goal will be to develop data visualizations that help to show the effect of supportive programs...
A team of students will collaborate with the Durham Public Schools planning department to develop and refine capacity and student assignment optimization models. This project will be a continuation of work started by the 2025 Data+ team and will allow DPS to site new school capacity in line with future...
A team of students led by researchers in the Durham Public Schools planning department will analyze, map, and visualize student enrollment and demographic data in Durham County. Potential projects for next summer include working with Census and DPS data to develop models that explain DPS enrollment trends historically and across...
The 3rd City Mortality project tracks near-real-time data about individual deaths released publicly, along with metadata including data completeness and release speed, for (N=54) US state, federal, and Washington DC prison systems. Data released is often incomplete. Students will work both with mortality data already collected by the 3rd City...
A team of students under Biomedical Engineering professor Megan Madonna will explore the connection between young students’ sense of belonging in a community and their ability and motivation to solve hard problems related to their community. We are interested in studying who and why people become and remain engineers. The...
A team of students led by Biomedical Engineering Professor Megan Madonna and the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies will develop methods to explore how middle and high school students become excited about engineering and STEM. Our team will evaluate and quantify the initiation and progression of engineering and STEM-identity...
This team, now in its 6th year, will examine a rich new dataset to glean insights about the programs and services offered during incarceration at the Durham County Detention Facility (DCDF). The team will clean and explore the new data set and combine it with existing data sets of bookings...
A team of students will collaborate with the Durham Public Schools (DPS) planning department to analyze, map, and visualize student enrollment and demographic data in Durham County. This data will help DPS plan and manage student enrollment and improve fairness in its student assignment policies. The main project will be...
Using data from the Durham Compass and the NC School Report Card among many other sources, this team continued the development of an interactive R Shiny dashboard that permits exploration of school statistical data. The team aimed to explore Durham Public School (DPS) zones through an asset-based lens to support ethical...
Students collaborated with CEE Professors David Carlson and Mike Bergin to model the effects of land use on the urban heat island effect using satellite imagery and ground-level temperature measurements. Students used machine learning to segment satellite images of Durham, North Carolina by land use. They then paired land use...
A team of students led by researchers Nicole Schramm-Sapyta, Ph.D. (Duke Institute for Brain Sciences) and Maria Tackett, Ph.D. (Department of Statistical Science) examined data from the Durham County Detention Facility and Duke Health System to analyze the effect of mental health interventions, state and local policies, insurance coverage, and...
A team of students analyzed, mapped, and visualized student enrollment and demographic data in Durham County. The team collaborated closely with analytics professionals at the Durham Public Schools (DPS) operations department and provided analysis to help DPS plan and manage student enrollment and improve fairness in its student assignment policies....
A team of students collaborated with researchers from the National Diaper Bank Network / the Diaper Bank of North Carolina (Kelley Massengale) and Duke Department of Pediatrics (Rushina Cholera) to assess characteristics of diaper bank recipient families. Utilizing the largest dataset of information provided by families accessing diaper banks, students...
In ecology and watershed sciences, large datasets often come from a variety of sources like continuous automated sensors, water grab samples, and community-collected scientific data. Overcoming these challenges is critical to explore the prevalence, persistence, and impact of degraded water quality on human society and wildlife. This project exposes students...
Using data from the Durham Compass and the NC School Report Card among many other sources, this team will continue the development of an interactive R Shiny dashboard that permits exploration of school statistical data. The team aims to explore school zones through an asset-based lens in an effort to support ethical...
A team of students led by researchers Nicole Schramm-Sapyta (Duke Institute for Brain Sciences) and Maria Tackett (Statistical Science) will explore the impacts of community health services and local laws and policies on the justice-involved population in Durham. The team will create a public-facing interactive timeline of the implementation of...
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