Current Project Activities:
Our team is still checking for data anomalies and reporting them to the Delphi team. One of the indicators we are now monitoring is hospital admissions. Across all of the indicators, if we come across a bug, we will comment on it in a sheet, and then have the opportunity to discuss it at our weekly meetings. As the weather becomes warmer and more people are going outside, we are seeing the numbers of COVID cases, generally, decreasing across the country.
Future Activities:
In the coming months, as we expect the virus to taper out over the summer, Delphi and planning on releasing a Public dashboard for data anomalies. Currently, the Girls of Steel members collaborate with Mrs. Mazaitis, a Girls of Steel mentor who is Delphi researcher, using a Google Sheet in order to indicate any data anomalies identified. A public dashboard will give everyone access to viewing and searching through the anomalies to better analyze the data. At some point, the intent is to give the public the ability to add their own anomalies if they come across one while browsing the site.
Meeting with Congressman Doyle:
On March 5th, Representative Mike Doyle came to a Girls of Steel meeting where he observed several different Girls of Steel projects. The entire COVIDcast team had the opportunity to share our project with him. He commented that having a resource like this that accurately shows the status of counties across the country helps with day-to-day decisions. He is in favor of the website where information is available to the public and not just private research groups. Refer to this article for more information about his visit!: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/news/2022/girls-of-steel-doyle
What has COVIDcast done for you?:
After participating on this project since 2020, each of us took some time to write a reflection about the experience.
Grace: When COVID first hit, I wasn’t really sure how to understand all of the numbers being thrown out by the news. The opportunity to join COVIDcast has not only helped me to put the effects of the virus into perspective, but I have also learned what it is like to maintain a website. Seeing the behind-the-scenes of a very complicated platform demonstrates how important organization is to data collection. Also, I have had a lot of fun learning how to report bugs and to communicate with professionals in order to solve a bug.
Elise: At the beginning of COVID, the whole world was in disarray and panic. Everyone was filled with caution and uncertainty. Sites like COVIDcast have never been more important than now to help people navigate the pandemic. Helping develop this website has allowed me to learn about the data collection process, understand the patterns of disease, and identify confounding variables. Being able to contribute to the CMU Delphi team has allowed me to explore some of the infinite uses of STEM in the real world and has given me confidence I can succeed in a STEM career/future.
Ashley: This has been such a meaningful experience. It is such an important, key element in today’s world to be able to effectively communicate information about COVID-19 to the general public. I learned how much behind the scenes work it takes to keep something like this running. It takes a lot of coordination between so many groups of people from many different fields to create this single website, and everyone has been working really hard to make this possible. I’m so excited that I’ve been a part of this project and got to learn what goes into a data collection website!
Janise: Being able to partake in such an insightful project has introduced me to how prevalent data science is to our lives! Moreover, COVIDcast gave me the opportunity to work closely alongside experienced professionals and experts in a setting beyond our robotics team, which has been an amazing experience for someone like me who is interested in pursuing a similar career path.
Natalie: I have learned so much about how data is applied to the real world. I used to not know anything about the work that goes into data collection and how much you have to consider when even making a website for people to use. I am not much more aware not only of the work put into the resources I use on a daily basis, but how to check to make sure that I am getting good and accurate information.
If you are interested in reading our previous blog posts, please refer to these links: