COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey Garners Awards

The COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey (CTIS)—a project led by UMD’s Social Data Science Center in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and Meta (formerly Facebook) was recently recognized with two prestigious awards from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).

The CTIS research team was named as the recipient of both the AAPOR Policy Impact Award and the Warren J. Mitofsky Innovators Award.

“This recognition for our team’s groundbreaking and challenging work is very rewarding, and motivates us to continue to collaborate and to find ways to share knowledge and real-time data with members of the public and with policymakers,” said Professor Frauke Kreuter, co-director of the Social Data Science Center.

Utilizing Facebook as a sampling frame to reach tens of thousands of individuals daily—first in the United States and later globally—data from randomly selected users of the platform were used to forecast cases and healthcare needs to allow improved and rapid planning response to crises including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data were subsequently also used to monitor health behaviors, vaccination hesitancy, mental health, and the like. Numerous methodological, legal, and technical challenges were successfully navigated to develop this approach and share such detailed data, providing unprecedented access to partners outside the social media organization. Data are currently collected in over 240 countries, and multiple publications and public reports have already detailed this work. 

The CTIS also recently expanded to shed light on the physical and mental health of Ukrainians amid recent Russian attacks. 

Learn more at socialdatascience.umd.edu.

Published on Mon, Apr 25, 2022 - 1:51PM