MEDIA ADVISORY

Mike Williams
713-348-6728
mikewilliams@rice.edu

Ambulance analysis to be delivered at City Hall

HOUSTON – (Aug. 12, 2019) – An extensive analysis of Houston emergency medical system data conducted by recent Rice University graduates will be delivered to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee Aug. 13 at City Hall.

Their work is a product of Rice’s Data-to-Knowledge (D2K) Learning Lab. Through the D2K Lab, launched in 2018, students work directly with companies, academic labs, government agencies and nonprofits to translate data into actionable ideas.

In early 2019, the Houston Fire Department asked a D2K Lab team to analyze more than 2 million emergency calls and make recommendations about the optimal place to put ambulances, fire engines and other resources to cover the city’s 654 square miles.

The analysis by Team Fire, which consists of five statistics majors who graduated in May, took first place in the D2K Lab’s spring showcase in April.

What: The D2K Learning Lab’s recommendations to the Houston Fire Department.

Who: Team Fire of recent Rice alumni.

When: Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 10 a.m.

Where: City Council chambers, Houston City Hall.

“Data is everywhere, in seemingly endless varieties and massive quantities, but there’s a critical shortage of people who are trained to turn data into actionable, useful knowledge,” said Associate Professor Genevera Allen, founding director, about the philosophy driving the D2K Lab.

“The key is to connect Rice students with people who have data challenges,” she said. “Our students will not only gain invaluable experience and unique learning opportunities; they’ll also make an impact by solving real-world data science problems.”

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Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.