Data Visualization Volunteer

Help EMI R&D effectively communicate their datasets to people both inside and outside of EMI, enhancing their ability to make good design decisions.

Do you have expertise in cloud data storage, data visualization, or web design? EMI Uganda could use you!

EMI’s Research and Development Department exists to develop appropriate responses to the design and construction needs of the church within East Africa, while influencing the local design and construction industry. A large part of our work involves generating the data that informs new solutions to design problems, and we believe that our impact will be greater if we can more effectively share this data both within and outside of EMI. For this reason, we are exploring better ways to store our data, and to communicate it to people who want it. We know that effective visualization of data is key to communicating it well. For that reason, we are looking for someone who can help us with the following tasks:

• Cloud-based data storage for several different datasets
  • Static datasets from discrete experiments, which are uploaded manually (e.g. the results of experiments with a rainwater harvesting prototype, with data both generated and uploaded manually)
  • Dynamic datasets that are generated by our instrumentation (e.g. temperature sensors reporting on a 5-minute interval from our prototype solar kiln)
  • Dynamic datasets that are mediated by third-party platforms (e.g. weather data, updated each minute, accessed from the WeatherFlow Tempest REST API).
  • We have a rudimentary system working now (PostgreSQL database implemented on AWS); ideally a volunteer would be able to build on this system.
• Interactive tools to allow users to download portions of these datasets
• Interactive tools to allow users to visualize portions of these datasets
  • At the moment we have a rudimentary Grafana dashboard that queries our PostgreSQL database. We would like this system to be more accessible and more interactive.
• Creation of a webpage that would include an embedded interactive data dashboard, while also providing context for the data it displays.

A volunteer filling this position could act as technical lead on one or more of these tasks, or could offer expert advise to our staff as they work on implementing these systems. This position could be either time-bound or ongoing, and it could be performed from our office in Uganda or remotely. It could be beneficial for a volunteer to fly to Uganda for a brief visit with our Research and Development department (from several days to two weeks), but this is not necessary. We will work with interested volunteers to determine a program that fits our needs and your availability.

We are also looking for people who would commit to maintaining this infrastructure, once it is in place. This would likely be done remotely.

The knowledge generated by the Research and Development program at EMI has great potential to improve not only our own design practices, but those of the East African design industry. Would you help us communicate this knowledge effectively?

Needs