College Aide

College Aide

Develop a systematic data quality control, standardization, and visualization toolkit to support NYC DOT's transition toward a more strategic, data-driven approach to citywide mobility analysis. Working directly with the Data Systems & Counts Management team, the College Aide will build new and modify existing workflows to ingest, clean, and validate multimodal traffic counts and third-party location-based mobility data. Where data permits, the project will focus on identifying spatial errors, automating repetitive data-cleaning pipelines, and mapping anomalies across citywide networks. Findings and data pipelines will directly shape how NYC DOT validates major data streams, tracks program performance metrics, and supports larger regional planning models to ensure transportation investments promote equitable and efficient mobility. Typical duties required: Typical duties include reviewing current Python-based data workflows and counts management platform metrics for familiarity. Then, the College Aide will assist in drafting data documentation standards and scripting automated quality control checks using Python and SQL. Additionally, manipulating large spatial datasets and cross-referencing field counts with third-party mobility matrices will be a substantial part of the project. Finally, the College Aide will translate complex data errors into actionable insights, compiling findings into maps, dashboard components, and technical presentations for the engineering and planning teams. What will the student learn from this experience? The student will gain highly marketable, hands-on experience in public-sector data science and transportation planning under the direct mentorship of data professionals. They will deeply develop their technical toolkit in Python, SQL, and GIS by tackling real-world, large-scale mobility datasets. This opportunity provides an inside look at metropolitan planning data infrastructure, allowing the student to build a portfolio piece that bridges technical data engineering with impactful urban policy that supports agency leadership.