Dashboard developed at University of Louisiana
University of Louisiana at Lafayette researchers have developed technology that’s assisting city officials in New Orleans understand risks associated with economic recovery, and are expanding the project statewide thanks to a National Science Foundation grant. NSF awarded UL Lafayette’s Center for Visual and Decision Informatics a one-year, $187,477 grant for the “RAPID: Visual Analytics Approach to Real-Time Tracking of COVID-19” project. With the grant, CVDI researchers will enhance its COVID-19 Resilient Economy Support Tool, or CREST.
CREST is a “dashboard” that was created for New Orleans in advance of Phase I of the reopening Louisiana’s economy in mid-May. Dashboards, which are also known as visual analytic tools, consolidate large amounts of data from many sources. The centralized information is displayed via tables, line charts, bar graphs and indexes. Businesses often use dashboards to measure market, industry or revenue trends. University researchers’ CREST dashboard factors in COVID-19 elements such as infection and mortality rates in the city, and vulnerable populations. Infection risk by occupation and mobility patterns of commuters from “hot spots” were also juxtaposed with job distribution patterns and number of jobs by industry.
“CREST is designed to help public officials measure risks and rewards, and make informed, data-driven decisions about economic recovery. If businesses are closed, for example, infections decrease, but it’s also detrimental to the economy. So finding balance is crucial, and data-driven information is key to finding that balance,” said Dr. Raju Gottumukkala, director of research for the University’s Informatics Research Institute.
The IRI encompasses three research centers, including CVDI. Dr. Henry Chu, executive director of the Informatics Research Institute, said IRI centers, including CVDI, provide data that “offers solutions for communities in a range of areas, including health, public safety, cybersecurity, and disaster preparation and recovery.”
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