Principal Investigator: Dr. Yoanna Long, CIS, Hasan School of Business
The primary objective of this research is two-fold. First, as a continuation of the current ICR-funded research, we will establish a data center to host and analyze cannabis-related data. As a component of the data center, during the next stage we will introduce data analytics functionalities based on the Apache Hadoop framework in order to analyze large volumes of cannabis data.
Second, to evaluate the data analytics capabilities of the cannabis data center, we have collected and will continue to collect from online discussion forums of people seeking advice and support for their marijuana-quitting attempts. We believe that online user generated data, as one of the main contributors of big data, is appropriate for use in the context of our research. Artificial intelligence and text mining algorithms will be applied to analyze online message content.
This analysis results will help us gain insights into marijuana users’ online interaction behavior, which can lead to better designed interventions from healthcare professionals and better designed marijuana discussion forums conducive of support exchange. Additionally, the collected data will continue to be a valuable source for various academic research as well as course teaching materials for the Data Analytics emphasis of the Computer Information Systems program. The established cannabis data center will also be a valuable data repository and analytics platform for researchers of cannabis.