Data Science Accelerator

Learn more about the Data Science Accelerator.

Book an office hour appointment to discuss if the Data Science Accelerator or other data service offerings are right for you.

Overview

Through CalData’s Data Science Accelerator, ODI has helped departments across the state build analytic capacity and use advanced analytics, statistics, and machine learning to address real business challenges using existing data, resources, and processes.

Data Science: Applying advanced statistical tools to existing data to generate new insights. Plus Service Change: Converting new data insights into (often small) changes to business processes. Results in Smarter Work: More efficient and effective use of staff and resources.

Through a focused 6 month engagement, CalData’s Advanced Analytics & Evaluation team partners with departments to refine a pressing business problem, identify appropriate analytical methods that could be incorporated to solve that problem, and develop practical actionable solutions that improve outcomes and decision-making.

Read more about recent Data Science Accelerator case studies:

How this service can help your department

To help you identify questions appropriate for data science, we created a list of problem types that we commonly see in the public sector. We encourage you to review each of these “problem typologies”.

Find the Needle (in the haystack)

Prioritize and reduce your backlogs

Flag “stuff” early

A/B test something

Optimize resources

Who is a good fit for this service

Unsure if your project is a good fit? Book an office hours appointment with our team to discuss if the Data Science Accelerator is right for your problem.

What this service includes

Over a 1-4 month period CalData’s Data Science team will work with you to refine your problem statement(s), conduct background research, identify appropriate data science approaches, and execute.

This service is designed for department programs with business challenges that align with one or more of our problem typologies. For the 2026 project solicitation, we are especially interested in high-impact proposals aligned with the following priority themes:

Program Integrity & Fraud Prevention — Protecting public resources by detecting illicit activity and improving the effectiveness, accuracy, and fairness of service delivery.
Operational Efficiency & Scalability — Addressing high-priority operational challenges with solutions that can be scaled or replicated across departments to solve common pain points.

No technical or data science background is required (or expected). We strongly encourage program staff and operational leaders to submit project ideas with clearly stated business problems and an outline of what succes

For more information on what to expect when engaging with the Data Science Accelerator, please refer to these blog posts:

Expectations of department partners

Departments using this service should be prepared to:

Commit to implementing change informed by the project’s findings, including support from leadership, program staff, IT, and communications teams.
Designate a Project Champion who can serve as the primary liaison and dedicate approximately 25% of their time during the engagement.
Provide access to subject matter experts and data needed to understand business processes, interpret data, and support analysis.
Participate actively throughout the engagement, including user research activities such as interviews, observations, or workflow walkthroughs.
Work within the established project timeline, with engagements typically lasting about 6 months.
Support documentation and knowledge sharing so lessons learned and project outcomes can benefit other departments and jurisdictions.