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The Road to Recovery: How Cities Are Assessing COVID Risk (309594)

Keywords: COVID, data science, public health, government, civic innovation

The Mayor of Los Angeles uses data in making decisions related to public safety, economic stability, and equitable services. The City's data scientists provide this data to the Mayor, officials, and the public in innovative and actionable ways. This includes the Data Science Federation (partnering 198 cities with 18 universities), the Data Angels (professional volunteers), partners, and City staff. One project included a global data science challenge to determine the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in locations across the City. The two-week challenge provided ideas and concepts that helped the City better understand factors that may increase or decrease COVID-19 exposure risks, how to calculate these risks, and do so in a way that was respectful of data privacy. L.A.'s data science teams are all led by women, and 80% of Federation projects are led by women.