The Computational Research Service (CRS) provides quantitative computing, consulting and data services for the College of Letters and Science social science researchers.  The CRS provides cost effective specialized resources in support of quantitative social scientists.

The CRS provides computing and consulting support to a number of extramurally funded projects in the College, including:

List under construction.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

  • The Next Generation of the Penn World Table. Robert Feenstra. Award Amount: $495,650

College Futures Foundation

  • Exploring Student Success and Persistence in College: The Role of Faculty. Michal Kurlaender, Scott Carrell. Award Amount: $400,000

Minerva Initiative

  • The Effects of Shocks on Interacting Social and Physical Networks. Zeev Maoz, George Barnett, Raissa D'Souza, Brandon Kinne, T. Camber Warren. Award Amount: $1,805,000

National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship

  • Community College Health Programs and the Labor Market. Michel Grosz. Award Amount: $27,500.
  • The Power of the Purse: The Differential Effects of Maternal and Paternal Income on Child Achievement. Na’ama Shenhav.  Award Amount: $27,500.

National Institutes of Health

  • Determinants of Cross Modal Plasticity in Children with Cochlear Implants. David Corina, Lee Miller. Award Amount: $357,317

  • Neural Networks for Speech Perception in Noise. Lee Miller. Award Amount: $1,680,550

National Science Foundation

  • The Asymmetric Sequential Effects of Gain and Loss Media Frames on Economic Attitudes. Amber Boydstun, Alison Ledgerwood. $150,000

  • Data-Driven, Computational Models for Discovery and Analysis Framing. Amber Boydstun, Noah Smith, Philip Resnik, Justin Gross. Award Amount: $199,782 (Collaborative research project with total funding $749,976
  • The Effects of Shocks on Interacting Social and Physical Networks.  Zeev Maoz, George Barnett, Raissa D'Souza, Kyle Joyce. Award Amount: $288,890
  • Immigration Policies Affecting the Highly Skilled: Effects on Innovation and Productivity in US Firms. Giovanni Peri. Award Amount: $170,000
  • The Next Generation of the Penn World Table. Robert Feenstra. Subaward Amount (NBER): $290,829
  • Recruiting STEM Faculty: A Systematic Analysis of the Faculty Hiring Process at Research Intensive Universities. Kimberlee Shauman, Susan Carlson. Award Amount: $987,340 (Collaborative research project with total funding = $1,479,170)
  • Understanding Long-Term Effects on Children in Economic Distress. Marianne Page, Paul Hastings, Amanda Guyer, Katherine Conger. Award Amount: $913,496

United States. Department of Health and Human Services

  • Center for Poverty Research Core Funding. Ann Stevens, Marianne Page. Award Amount: $4,000,000

United States. Institute of Education Sciences

  • California Community Colleges and Career Technical Education: A Researcher-Practitioner Partnership. Michal Kurlaender, Ann Stevens. $400,000
  • California's College and Career Readiness Standards in the Era of Common Core Assessments. Michal Kurlaender, Scott Carrell and Paco Matorell. Award Amount: $4,974,387
  • An Investigation of California State University's Early Start Program, affiliated project of the National Center on Developmental Education Assessment and Instruction. Michal Kurlaender, Award Amount:  $148,500
  • The Labor Market Outcomes of Career Technical Education Degrees and Certificates at California Community Colleges, affiliated project of the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment. Michal Kurlaender, Ann Stevens. Award Amount: $60,000
  • Ready or Not? California’s Early Assessment Program and the Transition to College. Michal Kurlaender. Award Amount: $1,860,432

University of California, Davis Interdisciplinary Frontiers in Humanities and Arts

  • Understanding the Long-Term Effects on Children in Economic Distress. Marianne Page. Award Amount: $400,000
  • California Community Colleges, Vocational Programs, and Workforce Development: Improving the Workforce and Improving Lives. Ann Stevens. Award Amount: $500,000.
  • Managing Temporary Migrations: California, US and the World. Giovanni Peri. Award Amount: $400,000

Volkswagon Foundation

  • Immigration, Off-shoring and Labor Markets in Germany. Giovanni Peri. Award Amount: $80,000

User Base

Our user base is expanding daily.  As of the start of Fall Quarter 2015, the Data Service had issued over 350 user accounts on its shared UNIX server and Windows Remote Desktop Server to users in all nine L&S social science departments in the (Anthropology, Communication, Economics, History, Linguistics, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology), as well as the Center for Mind and Brain.

The Data Service also provides data resources to users across the UC Davis campus. Between 2013 and 2015 over 270 locally held items were downloaded via secure login.  The Data Service manages the campus membership in the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.  The annual cost of membership in 2013-14 was $15,750 and approximately 100 UC Davis affiliates freely downloaded over 900 datasets in 2013-14 and 2014-15 with a non-member cost of over $450,000. Thus SSDS provision and promotion of this resource leveraged campus funding at a rate of over 14-to-1.  The CRS also manages in conjunction with the Library the membership to the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, the world’s largest archive of survey data.  In the 2013-14 and 2014-15, Campus users queried that system over 8,000 times and received data and related services valued at over $56,000.

Users are not required to disclose their identity to access data resource we provide; however, from the statistics we can gather, CRS data resources have benefited students and faculty in a wide range of campus departments and schools or colleges including Agricultural and Resource Economics (graduate, faculty), Anthropology (undergraduate, graduate, faculty), Art (graduate),  Biology (graduate), Center for Mind and Brain (graduate), Economics (undergraduate, graduate, faculty), Education (graduate, faculty), Engineering (graduate, faculty), Environment (graduate, faculty), Human Ecology (graduate, faculty), Humanities (faculty), Law (graduate, faculty), Medicine (graduate, faculty), Political Science (undergraduate, graduate, faculty), Psychology (undergraduate, graduate, faculty), Sociology (undergraduate, graduate, faculty), Statistics (graduate, faculty), Shields Library (faculty), and Urban Planning (faculty).

Historical Background

For a long-term recap of the contributions of CRS (formerly know as the Social Science Data Service) to the social sciences at UC Davis see the final IGA periodic review report.