Campus News

COVID-response collaborative blends data science, community wisdom

Carolina faculty and graduate students created the I4 Boundary Spanners program to address local COVID-19 concerns by combining data analysis with firsthand community perspectives.

Shellie Edge, Innovate Carolina, Wednesday, January 20th, 2021
From left to right: Jason Cramer, director of experiential professional development, Suzanne Barbour, dean of the Graduate School, Jeffrey Warren, executive director of the NC Policy Collaboratory and Deb Aikat, associate professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Not pictured: Malinda Maynor Lowery, professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of the American South. (Photo by Sarah Daniels)
From left to right: Jason Cramer, director of experiential professional development; Suzanne Barbour, dean of the Graduate School; Jeffrey Warren, executive director of the NC Policy Collaboratory; and Deb Aikat, associate professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Not pictured: Malinda Maynor Lowery, professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of the American South. (Photo by Sarah Daniels)

What started out as thoughtful conversation between University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill colleagues on the 2019 Tar Heel Bus Tour has turned into a successful pilot program that engages communities through data science, public policy and service to address community-specific needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sponsored by the Graduate School, Southern Futures Initiative and the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory, the I4 Boundary Spanners launched as a focused, six-month program this past summer (the four Is being Include, Identify, Investigate and Influence). I4 Boundary Spanners is among a subset of 15 faculty projects — from among the 45+ total Collaboratory-funded COVID-19 projects at Carolina — that is working with Innovate Carolina and the Institute for Convergent Science to apply a rapid innovation methodology designed to speed its results.

Read more about the work of the I4 Boundary Spanners program.

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