This year, the girls attended demonstrations led by an all-female crew of students and staff. They stopped by the Clough Undergraduate Learning Center (CULC) to see the Urban Honey Bee Project led by Dr. Jennifer Leavey. The Technology Group visited the retroTECH to play with vintage computers, video games, and more. The Women in Electrical and Computing Engineering (WECE) demonstrated how to build a wind turbine out of everyday objects. Across campus. The Mathematics group learned how to code their own music songs using rhythm and beats with EarSketch.

The photo scavenger hunt took them to the water slide in the recreation center, a dining hall, the bowling alley, and several popular student hang-out spots on campus.

Catered lunch took place overlooking Historic Grant Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium in the Student Success Center, while the Dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts spoke about the importance of their presence on campus. Jade Sims, from the Office of Admissions, used the GPA game to stress the importance of grades, extracurricular activities, and tailored admissions essays when applying to college. Current female student athletes talked about an appropriate study-life balances, camaraderie, and the diversity of scholarships at Tech.

Through this document, we seek to continue to make data more accessible and understandable, by physically putting qualitative information into people’s hands. 

All NPUs were invited to review and comment on the snapshot before we released the document. We will continue to collect data and update the document as new data sets are released or community suggestions are made.

Submit your idea now! http://www.civicatlanta.org/westside-idea-submmision

If you are interested in volunteering time or skills: http://www.civicatlanta.org/westside-volunteer

CCI has hired two new program managers that will be focused on this initiative full-time: Raina Turner and Nathan Jones.  Reach out to them at westside@civicatlanta.org

Are you a current college student (junior or senior) in Atlanta interested in helping local community organizations and non-profits with their digital presence? Then, check out Google’s Community Leaders Program!  At a high level, CLP is focused on creating a sustainable web ecosystem and increasing digital literacy by connecting communities, businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits with local student talent. We’d like to partner with Georgia Tech to select potential students for participation in the 2016 – 2017 CLP year. Below is an overview of the program, but I’d love to set up more time to discuss the opportunity further.

Program Overview

The WCA Data Dashboard serves as a one-stop shop for key data that is accessible to community stakeholders, researchers, local government agencies, and relevant foundations interested in sustainable Westside community development.

“We believe that this tool has the potential to encourage greater data-driven decision-making at the neighborhood and Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) level in addition to supporting research and policymaking that addresses significant challenges in areas of education, economic development, transit and mobility, and public safety,” said WCA Associate Director Mackenzie Madden.

In its current form, the dashboard offers resources in seven categories:  1) Community Profiles, 2) Economic Development, 3) Education, 4) Public Safety, 5) All Data, 6) Historical Data, and 7) Resource Library.

Presently, the dashboard displays information for NPU’s K, L, and T – the three NPUs connected to the WCA – as compared to the City of Atlanta.

The dashboard is a user-friendly tool that:  1) draws upon available quantitative and qualitative data, 2) stores data collected for current and future research initiatives, 3) provides metrics for assessing the success of diverse engagement and intervention models, and 4) develops comprehensive reports to identify the impact of “anchor institutions” such as Georgia Tech on neighboring communities to highlight knowledge gaps.

The Data Dashboard project began in 2011 as a static Westside neighborhoods asset map created in conjunction with faculty in the Georgia Tech College of Architecture. Under the leadership of Dean Royster and her WCA leadership team, the first virtual tool was created in Fall 2013 by a group of graduate students in Dr. John Stasko’s Data Visualization class. That iteration mapped transit and walkability in the city. The platform also provided a heat map of census data that has since been transformed into the Big Data tool available today. Graduate Research Assistants in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts continued building the dashboard into its present form.

Katie O’Connell, MCRP 2015, was hired as the Project Manager for the Data Dashboard in Summer 2014. She began by researching similar platforms across the country and collecting relevant data for the city of Atlanta. During an Online Tools session of the WCA’s 2014 Community Studio, O’Connell was able to determine the basic pros and cons of existing resources such as the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Neighborhood Nexus, the U.S. EPA’s Enviromapper, and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Several focus groups with Westside residents and stakeholders were held as various portals were designed to garner feedback on the usability of the dashboard.

The WCA staff has presented the dashboard at various conferences and symposia including The Center for Community Progress’ Vacant Properties Conference in 2015, Atlanta Studies Symposium, TEDx Atlanta, and the Georgia Tech Center for Urban Innovation.

The WCA Data Dashboard has been made possible through various stages of development in collaboration with entities at Georgia Tech including College of Architecture, College of Computing, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, the Center for Geographic Information Systems, and with funding from the Ford Foundation.

Please visit wcadatadashboard.iac.gatech.edu to explore the platform. Please use the hashtag #WCADataDashboard in social media settings, when referencing the tool.

The general conversation over the past 2 hours centered around whether funds need to be prioritized for custodial services or an IB-level education. Meria complains about “prehistoric spiders” and urine-stained walls that create a low-quality learning/teaching environment for students/teachers. Board members are persistent on the need for an IB-baseline. Briscoe-Brown jokes (or maybe she is serious) that she will muster an army of parents to clean the bathrooms and Westmoreland quips about a “Board Service Day” setting rat traps.

During this break, several board members seem more concerned with what is being said about them or about APS on Twitter than what is happening in the room. After reconvening, the conversation turns to a focus on the arts and the overall lack of arts access in APS schools.

At the end of the evening, all board members agreed on the budget, except one: Byron Amos, District 2 Board Member. The following Monday, the General Fund Budget passed at $685.6 million. See Superintendent Meria Carstarphen’s thoughts here: http://atlsuper.com/2015/04/20/board-approves-fy16-general-fund-budget-for-aps/

Full notes from the meeting are attached.

A slide deck from a previous APS Board budget meeting is attached as well, however it is not the one used at the meeting, as it had still not been made public as of April 29, 2015.

APS Budget Meeting Notes

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FY16 Board Meeting – Budget Discussion

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This year, the girls, escorted by current Georgia Tech students that served as volunteers, got a unique view of the campus. They stopped by the Clough Undergraduate Learning Center (CULC) to see the Urban Honey Bee Project led by Dr. Jennifer Leavey and toured the Invention Studio at the Manufacturing Related Disciplines Complex (MRDC) to see the 3D printer. They also got to see a residence hall for the first time. The photo scavenger hunt took them to the water slide, a dining hall, the radio station, and several popular student hang-out spots on campus.

Catered lunch took place overlooking Historic Grant Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium in the Student Success Center. They heard from current senior and Public Policy major, Katharine Mitchell about self-identity and maneuvering through college as a woman of color. Andre Dickens, Assistant Director of the Office of Minority Educational Development, spoke about the resources available as a minority student at Tech, including unlimited tutoring and new activity and social groups. Jade Sims from the Office of Admissions spoke about what it takes to get into college, particularly Georgia Tech, and how to make changes now that can will prepare you to not only get in, but succeed in college.

The students left with swag to remember their trip and the WCA looks forwards to its next group of girls in 2016.

On April 2nd, 2014, the Georgia World Congress Center published a notice of a public hearing in the Daily Report in accordance with OCGA 12-16-5. The public had previously been told to look at the GWCC website for any updates on important meetings. On Friday, May 1st at 2 pm, the GWCC website was updated with a notice of the public hearing regarding the demolition of Friendship Baptist Church for the New Stadium Project. WCA Staff attended the meeting. As of 6:30 pm on Monday May 5th (the day and start time of the public hearing), all doors to Building C were locked, until GWCC security was called to open the doors. The meeting was not video-taped and the only way people will hear about the comments made are via Kevin Duvall and Frank Smith of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and State Properties Commission respectively. Below, find the Environmental Effects Report produced for the site, the notice of the hearing, the construction/demolition schedule, and the public comments as recorded by WCA Staff.

Public Hearing Notification

Environmental Effects Report

Demolition/Construction Schedule

FriendshipDemo_PublicComment

NPU D Minutes February 11

NPU D Minutes February 25

TopGolf Driving Range with Restaurant and Bar planned for a currently vacant lot off of Ellsworth Industrial Boulevard Top Golf

Riverwalk Atlanta is doing a feasibility study for a linear park along the Chattahoochee River, including the old incinerator site Riverwalk

Not in NPU-D, but here is some information on the Collier Village Rezoning Collier Village Redevelopment

FACTS Academy Charter School has been proposed for a site on Marietta Blvd, which will focus on fine arts, chess, and technology education FACTS

Capital Improvements Program and Community Work Program 2015-2019 CIP and CWP 2015 to 2019

Please direct any questions to: carlyqueen@gatech.edu

Georgia Tech offers a multitude of summer camps for students of all ages – from elementary school to high school. In this packet (GT_SummerCamps), you will find the various offerings through different campus departments.

• Campus Recreation Center
• Georgia Tech Office of the Arts
• Athletic Camps
• CEISMC (Center for Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing)
• ICE (Institute for Computing Education)
• AE/Orbit Education

CEISMC and ICE both offer financial aid for students with economic need. Please see each group’s guidelines for qualifications.

https://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/studentprograms/faqs

http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/2271