block_population2 <- get_acs(
geography = "block group",
state = "IA",
county = "Polk",
variable = "B01003_001",
year = 2022,
geometry = TRUE,
keep_geo_vars = TRUE
)
saveRDS(block_population2, "data/Block_Pop_DM2.RDS")Cael’s Midpoint Blog
Midpoint Reflection
What have you been learning so far?
Throughout the course of the program so far, I have learned a lot of new techniques and a lot of new databases of information. The biggest area I have learned so far is mapping and understanding geospatial data. Before starting this program I knew nothing about geospatial data and how it worked, now I am able to take this information and visualize it on a map and join it with multiple pieces of information to gain a better understanding of the layout of cities and distribution of the population. As seen in the picture below regarding the distribution of population density (per sq. km.) of Polk County at the census block group level.
block_population2 = readRDS(file = "data/Block_Pop_DM2.RDS")
block_population2$ALAND <- block_population2$ALAND/1000000
block_population2$Density <- block_population2$estimate/block_population2$ALAND
mapview(block_population2, zcol = "Density", layer.name = "Population Density (per sq. km.)")In addition to this I have been able to visualize geospatial data outside the US census and have been able to apply it to building level and tax parcel level data as well.
Another thing that I have learned during this program is image processing. Through image processing I was able to take and image and apply numerous features to it such as edge detection, contouring, gray scaling, and feature detection. Displayed below is those same features applied to a Sanborn map of Waterloo, Iowa.
Finally, the last thing that I’m learning is the process and communication that comes along with a real-world data science project. At the beginning of the program, one of the things I wanted to learn was how the process of a data science project looks outside of a classroom and this project is giving me valuable experience as I am learning the communication that is needed to advance the project forward and to produce the best product we can as a group. Additionally, it takes a lot of effort to explore through what data is valuable and data that isn’t needed and that ability to be patient through that process is needed cause something may not appear right away, but it will in time.
What is the new direction of learning that you’ve been pursuing during the program? Why?
The new direction of learning that I am taking is coming in with an open mind and kinda acting like a sponge and trying soak up as much information as possible as I have been working on a lot of new areas of data science such as GIS, satellite imagery, and Prithvi segmentation modeling. Taking in this mentality allows me to broaden my understanding of the material and allow me to grow as a data scientist. Additionally, taking in help from my peers has been very helpful in advancing the project and my understanding further when I get stuck due to errors or
What skills are you hoping to improve for the rest of the program?
One skill that I’m hoping to improve through the rest of the program is working with satellite imagery data and in turn using that data for parcel detection as being able to do so with help expand our model to more rural communities without the need from pulling from every county assessor’s webpage for the information or for communities that don’t digitize that information.
Another skill that I’m hoping to improve is working with AI. This comes as we are soon going to be training our AI model and being able to build up that skill of working and training AI will look good to future hiring managers for future employment.
The last skill I hope to improve upon is my python coding as I will be having to build on the pretrained Prithvi model in python to fit our needs of parcel segmentation without the need for assessor data from every county. Although it has been a bit since I worked fully with python, I do have a solid background with it and through this model building process I hope to expand my knowledge further in understanding functions as well as machine learning in python.
Do you think that you’re meeting the goals you’ve outlined at the start of the program?
I believe that I am growing towards completing the goals that I had set out for myself at the beginning of the program. For example, I have done a lot of work with GIS data which was the biggest goal I had for myself and wanted to gain a lot of experience with GIS mapping. Another goal I had was being able to learn what the data science process looks like in a professional setting and it would be an understatement to say that I have definitely achieved that goal.