"Midwest" ... it's a state of mind.
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Trent Buskirk's Saturday afternoon Pedagogy Hour was one of many highlights of the 2024 MAPOR conference. His talk, “They are Large, but should they be in Charge? Exploring the Possibility and Implausibility of Large Language Models in Survey Science”, addressed many topics about the use of AI in survey research, specifically through the lens of large language models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. Trent has asked us to post his slides for your use beyond the conference, and they are now available here.
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Generative AI 101: How Survey Researchers Can Apply AI
November 8, 2024 at 11:30am CT
Claire Kelley and Sarah Kelley
Child Trends
How can generative AI be used to support survey research? In this introductory webinar we will provide a primer on how generative AI works and how it can be used for survey research. This course will cover a (math free) introduction to how generative AI models are built, and introduce core concepts such as API's, transformers, prompt engineering, few-shot learning, and fine-tuning. We will provide a brief overview of how generative AI is currently used in survey research with a focus on how learners can apply these concepts to their own research.
Registration to this webinar gives you access to the live webinar as well as access to the recording for one price. The cost for MAPOR members is $10, $40 for non-members, and FREE for students with a valid .edu email address.
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Claire Kelley is a co-program area director of data science and senior data scientist at Child Trends, where she conducts and supports research across all program areas. Her primary research interests focus on the intersection of machine learning and social science, particularly in the domains of health and education. In her work, Claire blends traditional quantitative methods with machine learning and software engineering. Some of her recent projects include using computer vision to assess bias in news articles, co-authoring an open source software package for fitting mixed effects models with complex survey weights, and creating an interactive JavaScript-based data story about algebra enrollment. In addition to writing software and conducting research, Claire is passionate about creating a community of practice around data science for social research. She regularly presents her research and teaches professional development courses at data science and social science conferences including PyData, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, and the American Education Research Association. Prior to joining Child Trends, Claire worked as a data scientist at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and at Merck. At AIR, Claire worked on a variety of data engineering and data science projects and led the data visualization and reporting working group. At Merck, she worked on e-commerce data science, including developing a parallelized system for generating product recommendations and using time series models for forecasting product demand. She holds a bachelor’s degree in statistics from Yale University and a master’s degree in quantitative methods from Columbia University. |
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Sarah Kelley is a co-program area director of data science and senior data scientist whose research focuses on applying data science techniques— especially natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning—to answer questions related to social science and education. She has worked on a diverse set of social science problems, from using social media data to explore public conversations around child abuse in Haiti, to using big data and geospatial statistics to understand drivers of the opioid crisis, to using natural language processing to gain insight into political polarization online. Sarah is particularly excited about the potential of data science methods to augment traditional research methods. She seeks to make her work accessible to general audiences through data visualization. She also hopes to support quantitative researchers by using data science methods to create and integrate rich data sets, providing data access through application programming interfaces, and linking data sets using machine learning methods. Previously, Sarah was a data scientist at the American Institutes for Research, where she led projects focused on applying computer vision algorithms in education contexts, developing large-scale data processing pipelines, and using machine learning techniques to improve predictive modeling. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Yale University and a master’s degree in data science from the University of California, Berkeley. |
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It’s time to elect the next MAPOR council members to begin roles in November 2024. We currently have two positions open for election: Vice-President/President-Elect and Associate Conference Chair. After roughly a month of open nominations, we’ve got some wonderful candidates running this year. Their bios are below.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to president@mapor.org.
Vice-President/President-Elect
Benjamin Schapiro
Benjamin Schapiro is a Research Scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he has worked at NORC since 2014, primarily on the General Social Survey. His research focuses on long-term trends in public opinion, mode effects, and the lived experience of the survey interview. Benjamin has been involved with MAPOR since 2014 and has served on the executive committee for the past three years as a member-at-large, and then Communications Chair and the Website Chair. He has also served as the co-chair of the AAPOR Welcoming Committee.
David Sterett
David Sterrett is a Principal Research Scientist in the Public Affairs and Media Research Department at NORC at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on political attitudes, survey methodology, and the public’s news habits. Prior to joining NORC in 2014, he received his PhD in political science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
David has enjoyed attending every MAPOR conference since 2010. He served as the student liaison for the MAPOR executive council when in graduate school, was the Conference Chair in 2021, and he is currently serving as a member-at-large on the executive council. David also enjoys attending AAPOR conferences and is currently serving on the AAPOR Membership and Chapter Relations Committee.
Associate Conference Chair
Lindsey Witt-Swanson
Lindsey Witt-Swanson is a Research Director in the Public Affairs and Media Research Department at NORC at the University of Chicago working with federal agencies, non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, and academics. She received her BA in Political Science at Creighton University and her MS in Survey Research and Methodology at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
Lindsey has served on MAPOR council since 2019 first serving as an at-large council member and currently serving as the Secretary-Treasurer since the position was vacated in April 2021. She also serves as co-treasurer for the International Field Directors and Technologies Conference (IFD&TC) and has been a member of AAPOR and MAPOR since 2011.
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49th Annual Conference
Friday, November 22 - Saturday, November 23, 2024
Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown (600 N. State Street)
“Bridging Trends from our Past with Insights for Tomorrow"
Our conference will focus on two important issues facing public opinion research in 2024 – the 2024 election and the acceleration of artificial intelligence. We will explore public opinion trends on social and political issues to understand the election and the key issues that affected the outcome. We will also consider how the rise in artificial intelligence may affect our field and how we collect, analyze and report public opinion data.
Friday morning short course:
"Beyond the Basics: Advanced Questionnaire Design for Writing Questions about Events and Behaviors"
Jennifer Dykema University of Wisconsin–Madison, MAPOR Fellow
Nora Cate Schaeffer, University of Wisconsin–Madison, MAPOR Fellow
Friday afternoon keynote address:
“Young Women and Men in the U.S.: A Political Mismatch?”
Lydia Saad, Gallup, Director of U.S. Social Research
Saturday afternoon pedagogy hour:
“They are Large, but should they be in Charge? Exploring the Possibility and Implausibility of Large Language Models in Survey Science”
Trent Buskirk, Old Dominion University, Professor and Data Science Fellow
Early registration discount ends November 8th at 11:59 p.m. CST
- Non-student early-bird registration for in-person attendees: $130 ($155 after November 8th).
- Student early-bird registration: $50 ($75 after November 8th).
MAPOR is committed to supporting conference attendance regardless of your financial situation. If you have concerns about the costs for the conference registration or travel expenses related to the conference please visit https://www.mapor.org/support-grants/ to learn more about support grant opportunities.
To help us keep the conference affordable, we encourage you to reserve your hotel room using our conference block at Embassy Suites. Rooms are $209 for a room with 1 King bed or $229 for a room with 2 Double Beds (plus taxes).
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The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s
November 22-23, 2024
Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown
600 N. State Street
Call for Abstracts
Submit By July 26th, 2024
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research’s annual conference welcomes abstract submissions on any topic related to public opinion research, communication, or survey research methodology. This year, we are accepting submissions for the following types of presentations: papers, posters, and panels of papers.
“Bridging Trends from our Past with Insights for Tomorrow”
Our conference will focus on two important issues facing public opinion research in 2024 – the 2024 election and the acceleration of artificial intelligence. We will explore public opinion trends on social and political issues to understand the election and the key issues that affected the outcome. We will also consider how the rise in artificial intelligence may affect our field and how we collect, analyze and report public opinion data.
We encourage abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include but are not limited to: politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; journalism, media, and public opinion; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; questionnaire design; data collection issues and strategies; existing and new methods for collecting data from respondents; online panel data collection; nonresponse; total survey error; machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data, and data science; location and geographic information; challenges facing the field due to technological and societal shifts; the ethical use of public opinion and survey data; qualitative and mixed-method research techniques; cross-cultural research; hard-to-reach and historically underrepresented populations; and data quality issues.
Submissions: Abstracts of 300 words or fewer can be submitted here. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address for all authors. The same author’s name may appear as first author on a maximum of two submissions. To allow for blind review, please remove all personally identifying information from the abstract’s text before submission.
Note to student authors: If the lead author is a student who will be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at the time of the conference, you may submit your paper to the MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition (see additional information on the MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition, available at www.mapor.org). When submitting a student paper to the competition, the student submitter will be asked to provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor, who will need to endorse the paper when it is submitted. The student paper competition team committee will reach out after the abstract submission window has closed. If you have questions, reach out to president@mapor.org.
Panel Proposals: A panel is a session that focuses on a common theme and includes 4 or 5 participants. A panel proposal requires a description of 300 words or fewer discussing the issues to be addressed and their importance. Also, submissions should list the potential panelists, their institutional affiliations, email addresses, and tentative titles of presentations. Panels related to the conference theme are especially encouraged.
Submission Information: All abstracts must be posted no later than 11:59pm CDT on Friday July 26, 2024. Accepted papers sharing a theme will be scheduled during a paper session. Papers with more individualized topics will be scheduled during a poster session. MAPOR considers both types of presentation equally valuable. All submitters will be notified via e-mail by August 30th of their abstract’s acceptance status. For questions or problems with the submission process, please contact the 2024 MAPOR conference chair, Jenny Marlar at: abstracts@mapor.org.
Travel Grants: The MAPOR Council will be offering two types of support grants for the Annual Conference: the MAPOR Student Support Grant and the MAPOR Colleague Grant. More details on these awards can be found here: http://www.mapor.org/support-grants/.
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The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR) Executive Council enthusiastically invites undergraduate and graduate students to apply to the MAPOR Student Fellowship Program. This program is a wonderful opportunity for students to pursue a research idea and publish their work. If accepted, you will be invited to present your research at this year’s MAPOR conference in Chicago, which is scheduled for November 22-23. 2024.
MAPOR is committed to supporting student professional development, learning, and network-building. The Student Fellowship Program is an important way to advance this goal by helping the next generation of scholars in public opinion research build on their research, expand their networks, and engage and collaborate with senior researchers.
Students who are accepted to the Student Fellowship Program will work closely with a MAPOR Fellow or other MAPOR member on a shared topic of interest, submit an abstract to MAPOR’s annual conference, and present their work.
Who should apply?
- Any graduate or undergraduate student with a research interest related to public opinion research, survey methodology, survey statistics, qualitative research, or applications of survey data.
Why should I apply?
- Pursue your research interest in public opinion research and have an opportunity to present it at the annual MAPOR conference!
- Work 1-on-1 with a MAPOR Fellow or other MAPOR member with shared research interests and who are leaders in the field of public opinion research.
Eligibility
This fellowship is open to graduate and undergraduate students with a strong interest in survey research or qualitative research. Applicants should be willing to commit to attending and presenting at this year’s MAPOR conference.
Preferences will be given to first-time MAPOR presenters, students who are in their first or second year of graduate education, or senior year in undergraduate education.
Application Process and Requirements
To be considered, please submit your application and letter of recommendation by April 29th.
Your proposal should be between 500 and 1000 words. It should include a very brief literature review and an importance statement. If the proposal is quantitative, please make sure you identify and describe the dataset. In addition, the student should identify a faculty mentor and ask them to write a letter of recommendation.
Send the proposal by email to paul@edchoice.org by Monday, April 29th. Include the subject line “MAPOR Student Fellowship Program”.
Contact
If you have any questions about the MAPOR Student Fellowship application process, please feel free to contact Paul DiPerna, email: paul@edchoice.org
Stay in touch with MAPOR!
Members of MAPOR can Join the MAPORNet listserv, where members ask questions to one-another, share information about events and jobs, and hear about updates in the field. To join, contact MAPOR’s Secretary-Treasurer.