Data Engineering · Research Support
Carceral Ecologies: LAPD Surveillance Flight Data
A 318-minute data-loading bottleneck became a 2-minute pipeline, unlocking research that went on to national attention and a $5 million grant.
Dr. Nicholas Shapiro and the Carceral Ecologies Lab came to the Data Science Center needing to work with large datasets tracking LAPD helicopter surveillance flights. The data was too large to load and analyze efficiently: initial load times ran around 318 minutes.
DataSquad members Lawrence Lee and Madeline Kim collaborated with DSC staff to engineer a solution in R that brought load times down to roughly 2 minutes, a 99% reduction.
The faster, cleaner pipeline made the research usable. With the DSC’s support, hosting the R server, cleaning the data, and mentoring one of Dr. Shapiro’s students, the Carceral Ecologies Lab went on to receive national media attention and secure a $5 million grant.
This work wouldn't have happened without the DSC team. You supported us through technical assistance, helped one of my students grow her R skills, and hosted the R server that made this research possible. This project became one of the crown jewels of South Campus' community-engaged work.
— Dr. Nicholas Shapiro, UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
- Years
- 2023–2024
- Team
- Lawrence Lee, Madeline Kim
- Tools
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- R
- Source
- Originally published ↗