The Summer Institute in Computational Social Science at UCT was held from 18 – 29 June 2018. Chido Chinogurei, a NIDS data analyst was a teaching assistant for the conference. NIDS was also represented by Kim Ingle of NIDS who presented in two sessions for the conference.
Ingle’s first presentation focussed on what NIDS is, what it is for and included explanations of the differences between panel and cross-sectional data, NIDS data collection and how one can engage with NIDS. Since NIDS data was going to be used by some of the attendees for a project to be completed during the conference, the presentation also covered some detail about accessing and using the NIDS public release data.
During the second presentation, Ingle shared some findings from NIDS, some challenges that one might face when using panel data, and closed with examples of NIDS data that may be of interest to those interested in using the NIDS data.
The presentations were followed by an engaging round of questions from attendees who wanted to know more detail regarding data quality considerations, attrition considerations, the structure of the NIDS data and the content of the NIDS data.