US Energy History Visualization
“As far as I’m aware, this is the first attempt to put so much information about U.S. energy history in one place.”
- Robinson Meyer, the Atlantic
Since June 2020, I have been contributing the US Energy History Visualization, where my colleagues and I have developed an interactive data visualization that shows 200 years of energy use in America as an animated Sankey diagram. Our work is motivated by proposals to transform the world’s energy, proving that past energy transitions can help us understand our potential future path.
The project is sponsored by a National Science Foundation grant, funding researchers and engineers from University of Chicago and DePaul University. It is intended for use in classrooms, research, and policy discussions.
The Atlantic published a feature piece highlighting our work, driving 8,000+ page views to our web app within the first 24 hours of launch. Shortly after this release, our app was selected as one of AnyChart's Best New Data Visualizations in DataViz Weekly. The project has since been showcased by the Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network in their library of Community and Sustainability Education Resources, and University of Chicago's press relase has been shared by Tech Xplore.
The full stack web app is built with Python, Django, and vanilla JavaScript, aided by D3.js and other libraries providing various off-the-shelf solutions. We use this tech stack to highlight incredible research conducted by the Center for Robust Decision-making on Climate and Energy Policy (RDCEP). RDCEP brings together experts in various quantitative fields to improve the computational models needed to understand future climate impacts, evaluate policies, and make robust decisions based on outcomes.
My role in this project is to aid the engineers at UChicago's Resource Computing Center (RCC) as they build out the core application, initially designed and prototyped by Nathan Matteson (DePaul School of Design). I have had the opportunity to refactor some of their brilliant solutions while contributing a performance-enhanced and intuitive mobile layout that saves our users time and money while viewing our resource-hungry app on the go. I contribute various bug fixes and refinements to complement the broader scope of work performed by RCC. We have a variety of new features coming down the pipeline, so stay tuned!
This is just a completely self-interested side note, but amidst the PR storm, my employer and alma mater gave me a shout out in their Twitter feed! Perhaps it's a bit silly, but it definitely felt like an exciting milestone in my career!