Data Science

What is Data Science?
The KU Center on Disabilities (KUCD) is a designated research center in the Life Span Institute at the University of Kansas, housing multiple funded projects at any given time. The mission of the KUCD data science team, comprised of three Ph.D. level statisticians, is to offer the top-caliber statistical services needed to advance this work. As part of the mission, the KUCD Data Science team also tests and disseminates novel applications of statistical methods promising to advance disability studies.
Supports and Services
We provide the following services on a fee-for-service basis. Statistical services offered by the KUCD Data Science team include:

Engineering Data Systems and Analyzing Data
We will help KUCD affiliates design robust data systems to satisfy the needs of projects to protect sensitive data. This work can include systems to manage data, clean data, model data, visualize data, and otherwise curate data for reporting purposes. In addition, we can automate these processes with validated coding scripts for quality assurance to ensure data integrity, develop custom data dashboards for projects to help teams maintain data systems, and write up results for knowledge dissemination purposes to ensure technical accuracy.
Grant Development
We will help KUCD affiliates to develop competitive research designs to procure grant awards. This includes alignment among logic models, measures, and research questions. In addition, we can develop analysis plans customized to the needs of the project, including running the power analyses for determining sample sizes.
Open Science
We will help KUCD affiliates implement the best practices in open science. This includes publishing project data with dictionaries on open data repositories after de-identifying them, publishing annotated scripts to reproduce any data analyses, and the preregistration of studies through either registered reports or preregistration websites.
Statistical Education
We will help all KUCD affiliates, ranging from doctoral students to senior investigators, deepen their understanding of research methods by offering open study groups, one-on-one consultation services, and workshops for small groups.