The fourth Laboratory-organized Northern New Mexico Community Data Sprint took place from July 15 to 19, with 14 Laboratory data scientists volunteering to help solve data-related problems for three Northern New Mexico organizations: New Mexico Highlands University, Los Alamos Public Library and the Taos Center for the Arts.
The weeklong in-person event was held in three locations in Los Alamos and Santa Fe and was free for the partner organizations. It was sponsored by the Lab's Information Science & Technology Institute and Community Partnerships Office.
“This was my second year as lead organizer for the Community Data Sprint. I have a fantastic team in James Wernicke, Patrick Duran, and our Summer Fellow, Angela Nyunt,” says Emily Stark, the lead organizer for the sprint. “This is our first year with three community partners and it really feels like we hit our stride. We also tried out a dispersed sprint this year, where teams were assigned locations, two in Los Alamos and one in Santa Fe. All of the community partners were fantastic to work with and brought such great energy to the sprint.”
Analyzing the health of university programs
The team working with New Mexico Highlands University assessed the health and vitality of the academic programs offered by the university’s department of business administration, particularly focusing on any roadblocks to students’ completion of the core courses in the bachelors of business administration degree.
“This level of analysis is beyond the capabilities of university staff, and outside of the scope of resources we have available,” says Veena Parboteeah, dean of the School of Business, Media, and Technology at Highlands.
Some of the courses that the analysis suggested could be roadblocks were expected, but some surprising ones also emerged. Based on the results, the department plans to make tutors available to students taking all the identified courses, with the aim of increasing retention and degree completion.
The sprint also looked at the order in which students should take the courses so that they have the greatest chance of degree completion, establishing what Parboteeah describes as “pathways for student success.”
“We are very grateful to the commitment of the Laboratory to its community and to be part of the 2024 Community Data Sprint,” she says.
Helping a nonprofit arts center thrive
“Taos Center for the Arts was looking at our global revenue stream narrative and where there would be potential for strategies to increase certain aspects,” says Chelsea Reidy, TCA’s executive director. “This is connected to helping TCA’s budgeting process as we continue to build back from the pandemic and understand new revenue flows.”
The Lab’s data scientists looked at a range of revenue-related issues, including which type of events drive the most revenue, and the relationship between the type of event and sales of memberships and concessions.
“I was surprised how the data team assigned to our organization really seemed to take time to learn about our operations and our world,” says Reidy. “It was very cool to be in dialogue with a group of people making sense of the numbers associated with our operations. It offered a chance to consider the way we operate through an outside lens.
“This has been an amazing opportunity for TCA. Working with LANL data scientists will make the organization more efficient and help us to achieve the goals of our mission, which is to serve and engage Taos through arts enrichment and education.”
Balancing a library’s digital and physical collections
Los Alamos Public Library was looking to explore whether it was allocating resources appropriately between its print and digital collections, and also wanted to know how it compared nationwide to other public libraries of a similar size.
“The sprint confirmed for me that we are allocating funds correctly,” says Gwen Kalavaza, the library manager. “The cost of providing digital collections such as e-books and audiobooks is high but this is a resource that the community is using and values.
“What surprised me most was the level of back and forth between me and the team to focus on the issue and then to get the data necessary to perform the analysis. I enjoyed getting a peak into the world of data science: it’s an area I am unfamiliar with and the way that the team worked together to define the issue and then analyze the data was cool.”
The Data Sprint is part of the Community Technical Assistance (CTA) program that makes the unique expertise and capabilities of the Lab available at no cost to nonprofits, tribal and governmental entities located in the seven counties of Northern New Mexico.
You can learn more about applying for help under the CTA program here.