CIDA works towards achieving its vision through scholarly research, consultancy, trainings, events, and long-term as well as short-term projects. Below are summaries of CIDA’s projects and activities.
Kurdistan Open Data
Kurdistan Open Data is a long-term project that aims to create an online data repository for all different types of data on all different aspects of Kurdistan including but not limited to health, education, transportation, utilities, businesses, and many more. The initiative makes Kurdistan part of the open data movement that was initially started by the United States government, and now spread to the rest of the world.
CIDA believes that this project is of significant value for creating a data-driven decision- making culture. Kurdistan Open Data helps the government, businesses, and the civic society to make more informative decisions and minimize consequences that are results of nothing but poor planning and non-informative decisions.
This project is an initiative of CIDA Founding Director, Dr. Hemin Latif. For more information on the project, check out the Kurdistan Open Data project.
Kurdistan In Data
One of the modern, effective ways of building awareness and literacy around a topic is blogging. Blogging can be very effective in attracting audiences, creating food for thought, and building seeds towards a more data aware culture. Kurdistan In Data is going to be the first blog that raises awareness around data. It is believed to be an immediate, accessible solution to the data literacy and awareness gap in this society that will attract interest and investment of the government, private sector, and the civic society. It will also serve very well the mission of the Center for Informatics and Data Analytics (CIDA) by empowering data-driven decision-making.
This project is an initiative of CIDA Founding Director, Dr. Hemin Latif. For more information on the project, check out the Kurdistan In Data project.
Student Course Evaluations
Until a year ago, students were handed a print version of the questionnaire and given some time during class to fill them in, usually in the last few classes of the semester. Recently, AUIS adopted a digital method and switched from print to online questionnaires, which is proven to have many advantages, such as convenience for respondents. Students can now fill the course evaluations at their convenience, any time, anywhere, using any device, and spending as much time as they would like to. The student response rates, however, have dropped dramatically since then! In an attempt to improve the students’ response rates on the course evaluations, this project was started.
This project is an initiative of CIDA Founding Director, Dr. Hemin Latif. For more information on the project, check out this blog post.