Firstly, here is a link to the visuals I created for FullConTech!

My decision to intern at the Washington Technology Industry Washington was one of the best choices I have made in my life thus far. When I first applied for the position, I was told that I would be able to work on data analysis and data visualization, which really interested me; as a GIS major with a strong passion with visualizing data I thought I would be the perfect fit for this internship.

One of my main projects at WTIA was working on visuals that would be used for the association’s event, FullConTech. Working with the head organizer of the conference, Candace Faber, we discussed what should be shown on the visuals and how they should be shown. Our goal was for me to develop visualizations that would act as supplementary material for attendees to start a conversation about the various STEM topics in Washington. The main visualization program that I would be using was Tableau – although I was extremely excited at the thought of using the program on a tangible project, I was still a novice. Fortunately for me, WTIA and Candace had connections with the company, which allowed me to work with Tiffany from Tableau. Under her guidance, I was able to learn how to effectively start and finish multiple visualizations, which can be a difficult task. I think the hardest part was determining what data was relevant for the conference and how to intertwine all the pieces. However, with Tiffany’s help, I was also able to gather datasets and get some sense of the data, analyze and determine a story to create, and finally visualize it! I ended up creating 4 visualizations for the conference, which aligned with some of the major issues addressed in the conference. Most of the data was obtained from well-known entities such as the Puget Sound Regional Council and the Washington State Department of Commerce.  Check out the visualizations to the conference here and the descriptions of each of the visuals below:

Building Tomorrow’s Infrastructure: For this visualization, I wanted to showcase how much each area of Washington has grown in the past the 15 years. In order to determine, what would be best for the future, I felt that it would be important to see the growing trends of Washington so far. I ended up gathering data from the Office of Financial Management and the Census to create a choropleth map showing the density change of Washington based on zip codes. Seattle’s fastest growing neighborhoods include Belltown, South Lake Union, Ballard, Pioneer Square, and the International District. Additionally, the majority of a decrease in density occurred in Eastern Washington and the border.

Attracting Top Talent: One of the focuses for the conference was to determine how Washington could garner the interests of folks with STEM experience. Other states, namely California, have fairly strong tech communities, so I decided to do an overall comparison of each state. The visual showcased what each state had to offer in terms of jobs, salaries, and population. In Washington, Software Developers working on applications are in the majority of STEM related jobs with almost 50,000 at the moment. They also have an average salary of $115,000, well above the above the average STEM salary of about $80,000 in Washington. Compared to the overall nation, Washington is in a fairly good spot. Washington STEM salaries are ranked 8th in the nation, and total STEM employment is ranked 11th in the nation. Compared to California, which has a whopping 1.1 million total STEM employment, we do have room to grow and improve.

Local Pipeline: Developing our local talent was a huge subject for the conference. I decided to show a number of things for this visual with the Story option in Tableau. The first tab showcases a number of statistics about states in United States, including the amount of money spent on Academic Science & Engineering and the number of Science & Engineering degrees earned. The second tab provides statistics, but with a stronger focus for public 4-year colleges in Washington.  One thing to note is that for roughly every 10 bachelor degrees earned in Washington, 3.7 of them are STEM degrees. Additionally, while the number of students attending college has steadily increased, the number of 5-19 year olds (potential college students) have stayed fairly similar throughout the years in the Puget Sound.

Managing Cultural Changes: This visualization provides information on the number of people who are and are not cost-burdened by their homes based upon their median household income. About 36% (936,260) of Washington’s households are considered to be cost-burdened or worse – in other words 36% of Washington households are using at least 30% of  their income on housing alone. The second portion of this visualization shows the distribution of “Age Categories” in Washington. As of 2014, Millennials and Generation hold the top age distributions in Washington.

To conclude, this experience has taught shown so much about the tech industry. Working on this project and being apart of the WTIA for the summer, has made me realize that Washington state has quite a good tech sector. We have a huge potential to increase and develop more – at the same time, the tech community has a fairly strong ability to influence how Seattle and Washington can develop. I’m excited to see what will be in store for Seattle tech in the near future.