Week 2 Notes - Algorithmic Decision Making & Census Data

Published

September 15, 2025

Key Concepts Learned

  • R basics practice in RStudio
  • Types of algorithms
  • Types of Census Data vs ACS data
    • Blocks data is only available for Decennial Census data
    • Block Group data has large margins of error

Coding Techniques

  • Lab0 Practice of R fundamentals and packages
  • Intro to tidycensus
  • Census API Key: fe841b7ef0aa73d9579f0517bd1c8f26d33c789b

Questions & Challenges

  • With more reps, I hope to become more independent in my coding instead of having to refer to demo code

Connections to Policy

  • When policymakers explore the use of algorithms, they need to ask themselves
    • what proxy are they using?
    • what are the possible blind spots?
    • what are the resultant harms as well as potential guardrails?

Reflection

  • It was really interesting to hear about the 2020 Census Innovation of Differential Privacy (adding mathematical noise as anomalies to protect respondents’ privacy)