With National Science Foundation support, Queens College will purchase a shared computer workstation and data storage system to support the research activities of Sociology Department members. Both data and facilities will also be made available to a wider group of scientists. The system consists of a DEC 500 5/266 with peripherals and software, a EXABYTE EXB-10H tape jukebox system and a 9 gigabyte SCSI hard drive. The 9 gigabytes of hard drive space will make it possible to acquire and analyze large data sets. The five core facility users employ a variety of computer based techniques that include the following elements: 1. the acquisition and analysis of very large and complex data sets such as current and historical foreign and domestic censuses and large longitudinal studies; 2. the implementation of recently developed maximum likelihood based statistical analytic methods; 3. the use of visualization techniques including three dimensional graphing and geographical information systems. Their studies are directed towards a number of socially relevant questions including: the career trajectory of men and women in science and engineering; math and science education of white, black and Latino men and women in the middle and high school grades; changing demographic patterns in the New York metropolitan area; change in occupation and income distribution over a long time period; the impact of immigrant streams on science and engineering labor markets; empirical analyses of success or failure of over 90,000 union organizing drives; the impact of migration trends; intermarriage of various groups; historical changes with respect to the family; and the success or failure of coalitions throughout the US in combating substance abuse harm and use. Each of these projects involves complex analyses on large data sets and the system provided in this award will permit the researchers to pursue their work with increased effectiveness. Queens College has a large an active Sociology Department with a large student enrollment. The instrumentation provided will assist faculty in their teaching role.
