The Civic Data & Technology Clinic, offered through the MSCAPP program and co-organized by the Center for Data and Computing (CDAC), connects students with organizations working in social and economic justice, sustainability, and climate change. It provides a hands-on opportunity to apply the data science and other professional skills students are learning, while also helping to fill the need for data science expertise in social good organizations.

“The goal of this clinic is to partner our incredible students and programs here with public interest organizations to leverage data science, skills, and technology research, but with a real mission point of view, to press change for good in social and environmental challenges,” says David Uminsky, Executive Director for Data Science and Senior Research Associate at the University of Chicago. “For the students, we really want to transcend conventional classroom experiences…to work with real world data, applying messy and hard algorithms to messy and hard data, but always with an eye on the mission of the project.”

Structure

The Clinic is an experiential project-based course in which students work in teams as data scientists with real-world clients under the supervision of instructors. Students are tasked with producing key deliverables, such as data analysis, open source software, as well as final client presentations, and reports.

Guided by a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science, as well as a dedicated data scientist within the University of Chicago, the Clinic includes a weekly class session, professional development, and a final presentation to the client as well as public stakeholders.

Projects

With the support of the 11th Hour Project, the grant-making arm of The Schmidt Family Foundation, MSCAPP and CDAC launched the Clinic in Autumn 2020. In that first remote 10-week quarter, project partner organizations included:

• FracTracker Alliance — a team of students built a system for informing the public about oil and gas industry effects on local air quality
• Inclusive Development International — students produced an application to track palm oil deforestation
• Hohonu — students built a data-driven dashboard for predicting water level changes across the country

Read more about the projects and see video presentations from the Autumn 2020 student groups here.

Eligibility and Requirements

Second-year MSCAPP students are encouraged to enroll. Second-year students in other graduate programs at the University of Chicago may also enroll, subject to faculty consent. Students receive one letter grade and 100 units of course credit (one full course) upon completion of each quarter.

Clinic Support

The Civic Data and Technology Clinic is the first chapter in the partnership between the 11th Hour Project and the University of Chicago. A $500,000 grant from 11th Hour will fund the Clinic and additional activities over the next year, connecting data science experts and students across University units and programs with the dozens of organizations that receive funding from the foundation. In addition to specific projects like those tackled in the Autumn 2020 quarter, the grant will also fund the development of an open-source platform at the Center for Data and Computing that provides data science tools and applications for use beyond their original purpose.