Social Sciences 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 According to the 2023 Durham County Transit Plan, 1,064 of 1,324 bus stops lack ADA-compliant paved landing pads, and outdated condition data prevents efficient prioritization of the $34.3...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...
Redistricting determines whose voices count, yet few young North Carolinians understand how district lines shape their power as voters. “YouthMaps” will bring Duke students together with the NC Counts Coalition to analyze and visualize how redistricting and gerrymandering impact youth representation, turnout, and policy voice in North Carolina. Project Lead:...
This Data+ project puts you on the front lines of a real question ministries and funders are facing right now: should we scale this AI health tool—or shut it down? You’ll work with real implementation data from global health innovators to clean, validate, and turn messy reality into decision-ready visuals....
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...
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This project examines how high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs in North Carolina Community Schools connect with nearby community college certificate programs and local workforce needs, especially in rural counties. Using publicly available data from state education, workforce, and economic agencies, the study looks at whether students have...
The count of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in the US hit a record high in 2024. Homelessness, besides its inherent harms, is associated with other injury and broader public health outcomes. As a structural driver of health, these ongoing, dynamic relationships between homelessness and health outcomes deserve robust, ongoing tracking....
The definition of community is often fuzzy at best. However, communities can have both political impacts (such as determining zones for resource allocation) and social ones (such as influencing how information and culture spread). Communities may be defined by existing political subdivisions (such as counties or municipalities), but more nuanced...
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 student researchers will collaborate with the Southeast Regional Coalition for University-Assisted Community Schools (SRCUACS) and the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition (NCCSC) to examine how statewide policies have impacted funding for public schools throughout history. The team will create a dashboard to illustrate the correlation between per-pupil funding and enrollment and...
A team of students will convert publicly available data, that are too unwieldy for easy use, from NC’s Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) into a database that will enable researchers, reporters and others to better understand how the civil legal system impacts North Carolina residents’ economic well-being. AOC’s civil case management system collects a...
In partnership with the Southeast Regional Coalition for University-Assisted Community Schools and the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition, a team of students will map the Rosenwald Schools across the Black Belt region of North Carolina. Students will mine for data that highlights historic assets of Black community while drawing correlations...
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 UNC Injury Prevention Research Center and North Carolina Injury and Violence Prevention Branch to update the North Carolina Alcohol Data Dashboard. Students will analyze data, design a dashboard wireframe, and build an updated data dashboard that provides a holistic narrative of the...
The US has one of the largest incarcerated populations per capita; prisons are dangerous environments with high in-prison and post-release mortality. Our 3rd City Mortality project tracks near-real-time data about individual deaths, including data completeness and release speed, across US state, federal, and Washington DC prison systems. Students will use...
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...
Students on this project will collaborate with select companies in the early stages of developing digital,hardware, and biotech mental health tools to develop an ethical framework for operating the companyover time. This work will require students to familiarize themselves with a range of new technologicalapplications, including virtual and extended reality,...
A team of students led by an interdisciplinary group of faculty at the intersection of policy, economics, and computer science used statistical and machine learning methods to assess and map the discourse of speeches (1919-2022) by applied economists on food and agricultural policy. Understanding the historical underpinnings of these policies...
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