REU Site: Data Science and Crime Analytics

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This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences Directorate. This program integrates research and education and has both scientific and societal benefits. The program targets undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, particularly those from groups where research opportunities are limited and/or participation in research is underrepresented such as women and minority students. The Crime Analytics REU is a ten-week summer program designed to help students develop research skills and technical abilities in the multidisciplinary fields of data science and analytics, and to prepare them for graduate study or employment in a data-saturated economy following graduation. Specifically, the program seeks to: 1) aggressively recruit a diverse subset of undergraduate students to actively participate in innovative research projects that apply analytic tools to make decisions about crime; (2) expose students to foundational analytic methods early in their educational careers in hopes of encouraging their involvement in data science and an analytics-based field of study; (3) expose and engage students to research opportunities that demand communication and cooperation across experts in traditional disciplinary boundaries; (4) enhance students’ educational experiences by exposing them to workshops, seminars, and social activities that enrich their professional development and inspire them to pursue graduate school; (5) foster shared interdisciplinary communication skills by offering opportunities to disseminate research findings via an annual undergraduate research symposium, annual professional conferences, and peer-reviewed journal outlets. The Crime Analytics-REU site will operate by housing selected students on campus, and provide them with a stipend in exchange for their work on faculty-led research projects. The program is modeled around a team-based pedagogical concept in which students will be selected and assigned to interdisciplinary research teams that will use cutting-edge data technologies to explore problems related to crime and criminal justice. Students will be exposed to data science skills that include working with large data sets, data mining and manipulation, machine learning, crime mapping, quantitative modeling, and data visualization. Students will also be taken to visit leaders in the data industry, such as SAS, Google, Apple, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Crime Analysis lab. The research projects will culminate with the preparation and submission of a research manuscript for publication in an academic journal, and a public presentation of their research. Students will also participate in social and cultural enrichment activities as well as workshops designed to prepare them for graduate school and or professional employment in the data analytics field.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.