Data Challenges
Communicating scientific results effectively is one of the most challenging and essential skills research biologists can have. Data challenges present opportunities to perform innovative analyses and create engaging visualizations. I participate in data challenges to push the boundaries of my abilities in coding for data processing, analysis, and visualization. Thus far, I have won prizes in each of the data challenges I have participated in.
CA Election 2020
Data Challenge
UC Davis Data Lab
Ballot measures can be confusing, and it can be challenging to determine the implications of a "yes" vote versus a "no" vote. This data challenge tasked participants with selecting one of the ballot initiatives up for vote in California's 2020 election. The goal was to create a data visualization that made data relating to the initiative easy to interpret for a general audience. I participated in this challenge with two teammates, Katherine Corn and Erin Calfee. We won the challenge through our use of Rshiny to make an interactive map showing the effects of legislation on overcrowding in California's Prison System. This visual was designed to enlighten voters on the potential consequences of the passing of Proposition 20, a measure that, if passed, would have elevated some misdemeanors to felonies. Our code can be found in this GitHub Repository. To read more about our process and interpretation of the data and view our interactive map, please click HERE.
San Francisco Bay Regional Monitoring Program Data Exploration Challenge
San Francisco Estuary Institute
and aquatic sciences Center
The data used to make decisions regarding the management of recreationally fished species is often presented in dense scientific reports. This challenge encouraged participants to tell a story about the safety of consuming fish in San Francisco Bay by making an easily interpretable data visualization. Using reports on contaminants in the SF Bay, I designed this pamphlet to be distributed with the purchase of fishing licenses so that fishermen could quickly determine which species are most toxic to consume. To see the entire pamphlet and read more, click HERE.