You are asked to submit two to three ideas for the group project (at least two). Ideas can be overall general, but should tackle at least one of the areas we will see in this course: i) causal inference or ii) prediction.
Causal inference: The question is focused on answering a causal question (e.g. “What is the effect of X on Y?"). It is ok if there are limitations to your analysis, as long as you are able to identify them and propose potential solutions in the final report.
Prediction: Even though we will not cover prediction until week 10, you can definitely tackle a prediction problem (e.g. “Can we identify unsubcribers (before they unsuscribe) based on their characteristics?”, “Can we predict the results for the midterms based on prior elections and current polls?").
At this stage, you do not need to have full clarity on how you will tackle the question in terms of analysis. The instruction team will provide appropriate feedback based on your ideas, and can guide you throughout the process.
Make sure that your idea is grounded on data that you can obtain. There are many good ideas that unfortunately don’t have pertinent data to be tackled, so make sure that whatever idea you have, you can accompany it with respective data. The instruction team will also provide feedback on whether the data is pertinent or not.
One relevant item in this submission is also originality. Make sure you are not copying another project that is already available online or using the same idea another group is already working on.
Pertinence: The question at hand tackles one of the areas covered in this class and it is presented in a clear way.
Relevance: Proper motivatation of why this question is relevant/interesting.
Originality: The question is not a copy of another project already available and tackles an issue not addressed by another team in the class.
Data availability: The group has a good idea of the data they will need and it is feasible to obtain.
Peer assessment: Students will be evaluated by their peers in terms of their contributions and responsiblity.
You can find a template for the submission here