SurveyCTO Presentation Series: How Laterite uses Text Audits and Python to Optimize Survey Management.

Those who work in survey data collection know that survey duration is an important factor when it comes to delivering a project within budget. To optimize and manage survey duration, the team at Laterite built workflows using SurveyCTO’s text audits feature and a python script. Their goal is to better understand how long surveys take, down to each variable and module, in order to improve survey administration and provide accurate survey cost data for their clients.

Laterite is an East African firm specialized in research for social impact, combining data, research, and analytics to maximize the social impact of the work of their clients. Laterite delivers full-cycle research projects and evaluations to support effective decision-making. Based in East Africa, Laterite offers tested data collection systems, a large pool of enumerators, expert research and innovations team, and a thorough understanding of the countries where they work.

In this webinar, we will hear from Bisrat Getachew and Samuel Nzaramba. Bisrat is a Data Quality Analyst at Laterite, where he is responsible for running various quality checks on incoming data as well as coding survey questionnaires into SurveyCTO. Bisrat holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Addis Ababa University. He is keenly interested in data.

Samuel is an Innovations Associate at Laterite and in this role he is responsible for improving, streamlining, and automating processes and systems to maximize efficiency. He holds a Master of Science in Information Technology from Carnegie Mellon University and a BSc in Computer Science from Makerere University. Before joining Laterite, Samuel worked as an Applications Developer at a technology startup and later as a teaching assistant at Carnegie Mellon University Africa focusing on Data Science and Information Security.