Join us for a virtual roundtable discussion about the opportunities and challenges of using AI in survey research.

Trent Buskirk, Novak Family Professor of Data Science at Bowling Green State University

Trent D. Buskirk, PhD is the Novak Family Professor of Data Science at Bowling Green State University. His research interests are varied and include Mobile and Smartphone Survey Designs, methods for calibrating and weighting nonprobability samples, and in the use of machine learning methods for social and survey science design and analysis. Prior to his post at BGSU, Trent served as the Director for the Center for Survey Research at UMASS Boston and prior to that Trent was the Vice President for Statistics and Methodology at the Marketing Systems Group (MSG) and was tenured in the department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health at Saint Louis University. Dr. Buskirk’s research has been published in leading survey, statistics and health related journals such as Field Methods, Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Social Science Computer Review, Journal of Official Statistics, Preventative Medicine, Cancer, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, Survey Methods: Insights from the Field and Methods, Data and Analysis, Public Opinion Quarterly and the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. Recently, Trent served as the President of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research and was the past Conference Chair for AAPOR. In 2017 Trent was named Fellow of the American Statistical Association. When Trent is not working or thinking about surveys or machine learning, you can find him playing resident prince to his two princesses or playing an action packed game of pickleball!

Scott Crawford, Chief Vision Officer, SoundRocket

Scott D. Crawford, MA in Applied Social Research from the University of Michigan & MA in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University, has focused his career on the use of innovative technologies in social research (web, multi-mode, mobile, Internet-of-Things, and most recently the use of AI tools). He has studied participant burden in the research process and how web survey design impacts data quality. He has explored how survey researchers can use the web to improve data quality in varying populations, including children, rare health conditions, nurses, and users of personal genetic testing. He has also focused on how the design of surveys (use of textual messages, paging vs. scrolling design, and mode) impacts data quality. His research has led to influential articles reviewing web-based survey software, a standard for web-based survey design, and a book chapter on testing web questionnaires. His work led to the founding of the Survey Sciences Group, LLC in 2004, later renamed SoundRocket, as a full-service survey research organization based on principles of evidence-based survey methodology. Mr. Crawford serves as the Chief Vision Officer at SoundRocket. He focuses on understanding the future direction of the social science research field and SoundRocket’s role in that field. Mr. Crawford routinely blogs on related topics on The Launch Pad blog (http://www.soundrocket.com/soundrocket-blog/). Mr. Crawford has assisted in the implementation of survey research projects for hundreds of researchers and research institutions (http://www.soundrocket.com/customers). He is most proud of the innovations in collaborative research in which he has participated, such as the National Campus Climate Survey, the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership, the Healthy Minds Study, and others. Recently, Mr. Crawford has led a SoundRocket team in collaborations on evaluating the impact of ChatGPT on the field of survey research, particularly on survey research operations.

Claudia Deane, Executive Vice President, Pew Research Center

Claudia Deane is the executive vice president of the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC. In this role, she is responsible for all aspects of research creation and dissemination at the Center. She has also worked as a public opinion expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Washington Post. She did graduate work in the political science doctoral program at the University of Michigan.

Taylor Orth, Senior Data Journalist, YouGov

Taylor Orth is a data journalist and public opinion researcher at YouGov. She has a PhD in sociology from Stanford. Her work includes polling on news, politics, technology, and lifestyle topics and she regularly collaborates with a variety of media organizations, including The Economist and Yahoo News. Over the past year, Taylor has been exploring ways to incorporate AI technology into the design and analysis of polls and polling data. She is currently based in San Antonio, Texas.