Faculty and alumni of the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM) recently received awards from the U.S. Census Bureau in support of innovative work to improve the science of data collection.

The first award was to RTI International to build a new Ask US Panel. This project will design, build and maintain a probability-based online research panel. Statistical agencies and nonprofit organizations will use the panel to conduct public opinion and methodological research for the common good.

The project’s Co-Principal Investigators, Jill Dever and Stephanie Eckman, are both Ph.D. alumna of JPSM. The project’s Principal Investigator, Emilia Peytcheva, is a graduate of JPSM’s sister program at the University of Michigan.

“The federal statistical agencies are worried about declining survey response rates and threats to data quality. The panel will let them test new approaches to collecting data,” Eckman said.

Another cooperative agreement, awarded to Boston University, will help develop methods for providing formal privacy guarantees for data collected through complex sample surveys. Among the Co-Principal Investigators of this project are JPSM Research Professor Joerg Drechsler and is Professor Frauke Kreuter, director of JPSM. The project will be housed at the newly founded Social Data Science Center.

An additional cooperative agreement was awarded to a research team based at the University of Michigan, with co-investigators at the New School. The project will develop new analytic strategies to maximize the utility of social media data to monitor attitudinal trends related to statistical information produced by government agencies and other organizations.

One of the Principal investigators for this project is JPSM Research Professor Fred Conrad, who is also on the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he is based.

The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences congratulates JPSM faculty and alumni on these prestigious awards and projects.