Course Description

This course is an introductory exploration into the intersection of global human development with data science. Each student will be introduced to relevant development topics as they pertain to high resolution global: population, natural resource and built environment description. Students will explore current work on global development surveys for demographic analysis, as well as the use of census and call detail records to describe human movement. Additionally, students will develop an annotated bibliography, write a literature review, form a central research question and seek to identify a research gap. The course concludes with a group presentation and individual research proposal that highlights and summarizes the most significant findings from the semester.

Goals and Objectives:

• To learn about the research process and how it can be used to build a knowledge base to support your writing.
• To investigate a subject matter by defining its boundaries, identifying significant contributing areas of interest and discarding non-essential and/or non-contributing information.
• To use a body of knowledge as the basis for writing a research paper, including the formulation of a central research question
• To produce a scientific article, including a literature review, methodological discussion, citations, bibliography, abstract and information about the author.
• To challenge students to become apprentice scholars and identify a central research focus of interest.

Course Material