Wisconsin Autism Data Science Initiative

About

We are one of the funded projects from the Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI). You can read more about our specific project here.

ADSI is a data-driven research collaboration that brings together many types of information—including behavioral, genetic, perinatal, and environmental data—to better understand the factors that influence autism and treatment outcomes.

By integrating these data sources, researchers can examine how they interact rather than studying them in isolation. The initiative brings together epidemiologists, data scientists, and autism experts including community members with lived experience to collectively explore what contributes to autism and how to improve health outcomes for autistic individuals.

Our Research Aims

Our UW–Madison project focuses on three interconnected research aims, as illustrated below.

Three research aims of the UW–Madison Autism Data Science Initiative. Aim 1 examines early-life factors and autism likelihood using causal inference with Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) and SEED data. Aim 2 examines autism characteristics and heterogeneity through joint modeling of latent factors and early-life factors using SEED data. Aim 3 examines changes in autism prevalence by applying BART models from Aim 1 to linked UW Health electronic health records and Wisconsin birth records. Across all three aims, research is shaped by community input and subject to independent verification.

MPIs: Amy Cochran and Maureen Durkin