Georgia AIM: AI, Workforce & Regional Analytics

As a Graduate Research Assistant with Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR), I contributed to Georgia AIM, a multiyear statewide initiative focused on artificial intelligence adoption, workforce readiness, regional economic development, infrastructure, and community capacity across Georgia. My role combined GIS, R programming, economic and workforce research, data validation, interactive visualization, regional analysis, and technical communication. I supported regional profiles, AI101 training and outreach, stakeholder research, workforce and education analysis, statewide mapping, and the development and validation of data used in public-facing Georgia AIM products. A major component of my work involved translating complex datasets and policy criteria into usable spatial tools. I calculated and validated county-level EDA economic-distress investment levels and combined them with persistent-poverty and rural-status indicators for statewide analysis. This work helped support the economic-distress data presented through Georgia AIM’s public mapping and planning materials. I also developed interactive R/Leaflet tools for regional vacancy analysis. An initial Census-tract vacancy explorer created for the River Valley region generated enough interest that the workflow was adapted for another regional commission, demonstrating how reusable open-source mapping tools can support regional economic-development decision making. Across Georgia AIM, my work focused on making statewide and regional data easier to interpret, communicate, and apply — from federal economic-distress criteria and workforce pipelines to AI training activity and interactive GIS applications!