Data Devils Lab

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Bringing the ASU Charter to life

“Measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed.” We expand access to applied research for students across majors and backgrounds and equip community organizations—often those without in-house data capacity—with tools that increase equity in services (e.g., mapping food-insecurity hot spots, identifying service gaps, optimizing outreach).

“Assumes fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural health of the communities it serves.” Projects target Arizona’s urgent needs: food security (St. Mary’s Food Bank dashboards), basic needs for students (SNAP/WIC access near campuses), services for women and families (Hope Women’s Center expansion analysis), foster youth outcomes (AFFCF evaluation), and humane, equitable animal care (Maricopa Animal Care & Control resource tool).

“Advances research and discovery of public value.” Our collaborations produce peer-reviewed manuscripts, policy reports, methodological toolkits, and interactive GIS products that partners actively use—translating scholarship into measurable community outcomes.

Mapping to ASU’s Design Aspirations

• Use-Inspired Research: Every project starts with a partner’s real decision and ends with an actionable product—dashboards, models, or policy recommendations that get used the next day.
• Social Embeddedness: Teams are embedded within organizations, practicing co-design, shared governance, and continuous feedback to ensure tools fit on-the-ground realities.
• Leverage Our Place: We work across Arizona’s diverse geographies—from urban neighborhoods to rural corridors—so insights reflect local context and drive place-based solutions.
• Enable Student Success: Students gain portfolio-ready deliverables (dashboards, reports, publications), mentorship, and experience working on interdisciplinary teams under real constraints.
• Fuse Intellectual Disciplines: We blend statistics, geospatial science, and AI with domain knowledge in health, human services, education, and public policy.
• Transform Society: Partners report improved targeting, smarter resource allocation, and stronger outcomes—practical shifts that compound community impact over time.
• Value Entrepreneurship: We build reusable, scalable decision-support systems and iterate quickly—treating each collaboration as a testbed for innovation that others can adopt.
• Engage Globally: By sharing methods and results through conferences and journals, we position Arizona’s nonprofits as national leaders and ASU as the hub for socially embedded, data-driven practice.