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Applied Data Center

Lake Forest College / Academics / Applied Data Center

Data tells a story. We can help you read and interpret it.

When it comes to engaging in research, business, or commerce, data is one of the most valuable assets. 

Strategically using data can help your research or grow your business. We can assist you in using data to help your team make better decisions in all areas of your business from warehousing to distribution, marketing to customer service, and more. 

code example

Lake Forest College’s Applied Data Center (ADC) will help you make sense of data so you can find a path forward with your research, business, and more. Our data analysis services can help you make informed decisions and plot the future of your project, whatever it may be.  

Get in touch with the ADC

Have a project for us? Have some questions? We'll get back to you as promptly as possible.

Email data@lakeforest.edu to get started. 

The Applied Data Center is here to help you

At the ADC, we are dedicated to providing free quality data support for qualified projects. Please reach out if you think the ADC can support your data analysis, organization, and management. 

We assist with:

  • Faculty research
  • Departmental and campus office initiatives
  • Student projects
  • External business projects
  • Community-based projects
  • and more!

Bring us your data, and we will help you maximize its efficacy—for free. The ADC serves both Lake Forest College and off-campus needs. In all cases, our data services are complimentary. 

students collaborating on data

Free data services

Our services are 100 percent free all the time for everyone! Lake Forest College's Applied Data Center offers data services to students, faculty and staff, and external organizations free of charge. 

faculty work with students

Make sense of information

You have the information, but what do you do with it to maximize its utility? Our services help you make your data serve a clear and intentional purpose. This can help you refine processes and plan informed next steps, reducing uncertainty. Analyzing data can also help identify and prioritize questions and under-explored areas in research. 

a man working at computer screens full of numbers and data

Grow business with data

There are abundant opportunities for organizations to use data to optimize operations and everyday business processes. Data can influence business success in a variety of ways, but primarily, data can serve the following areas:

  • Inform and improve decision-making
  • Revamp and refine operations
  • Create new streams of revenue

Data is a business asset and should be highly prioritized by even the smallest business operations. Help your business gain insight from data to get a better understanding, not assumptions, of your customers—who they are, their preferences, behaviors, and more.

Data projects the ADC has completed

Below are a few examples of data projects the ADC has assisted with. The ADC has:

  • Assisted Lake Forest College's Office of Advancement in incorporating historical data dating back to the 1980s into the existing database of alumni and donor information. 
  • Provided analyses regarding player performance, game outcomes, referee bias, and more for the Lake Forest College hockey teams.

  • Assisted in providing data summaries of the College’s Global Engagement Office study abroad students and their placement locations. The ADC helped create a dashboard to maintain a record of study abroad data. 

data dashboard example created by the adc

Do you have a data project the ADC can help with? Contact us to get started by emailing data@lakeforest.edu.

Data in action

How can data help you, and what impact does data collection and analysis have on the real world? 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, data collection and analysis played an instrumental role in predicting the growth of the pandemic, ultimately allowing scientists, governments, and organizations to forge an informed path forward during an uncertain time.

Using publicly available data, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Will Conrad and Assistant Professor of Mathematics Arthur Bousquet combined traditional epidemiological approaches with machine learning to better predict the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in France, Germany, the UK, and South Korea. The new approach improved the ability of researchers to predict the direction of the pandemic within seven days. 

Read more

Steering Committee

Director

Arthur Bousquet

Associate Professor of Mathematics

data@lakeforest.edu

Chair of Steering Committee

DeJuran Richardson

Ernest H. Volwiler Professor of Mathematics

Committee Members

Tilahun Emiru, Assistant Professor of Economics

Robert Lemke, Professor of Economics and Morten Chair of Public Policy 

Davis Schneiderman, Executive Director of the Krebs Center for Humanities and Professor of English