CAREER: Behavioral Analytics and Field Experiments in Sustainable Innovation Policies

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

The analysis of big data in digital platforms accelerates entrepreneurial activity and supports the development of innovation related skills in the economy. However, these data often exhibit a paradox in that there is distance between those who own, curate, and control intelligence gleamed from massive data (e.g., companies owning mobile application databases) and those who broadcast it (e.g., users or communities). For open data in the public domain, this distance can be narrowed by directly involving communities, and training local cohorts of students and professionals to be able to interpret and translate data to answer questions of significance to the community. Using social innovations in energy systems and transportation, this CAREER project deploys big data analytics and experimental science to advance the design of incentives for resource conservation policies in both urban and non-urban areas. Buildings and transportation are important sectors of the economy; therefore, this research calls on human and machine intelligence to advance research on how large-scale civic data in combination with behavioral strategies can be used to increase resource conservation, while providing aggregate intelligence about infrastructure and localized impacts in near real time. This research creates the necessary data infrastructure for a suite of information-based policy interventions. This includes linkages in the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning prediction with methods of causal inference. Unstructured data that would take months of human processing will be interpreted and classified rapidly, while structured data that lives in disparate information systems can be linked and activated to enable policy analysis. Furthermore, this CAREER program integrates behavioral research, teaching, and the dissemination of computational tools as a means to broaden participation in analytic policy processes among historically under-represented communities. The research, will lies at the intersection of data science and policy, will deploy novel approaches to evaluate, engage, and disseminate open data to problems of resource efficiency and behavior changes for critical civic infrastructure and natural resource protection. It engages not only with civic partners, but also with K-12 students as well as undergraduate and graduate students. 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.