HUD, USDA throwing a little spaghetti against the wall to see what big data projects stick

Ask the CIO

As every agency tries to make sense of the ever-growing mounds of data it collects, this big data challenge is giving them the opportunity to experiment and even take some smart risks. At the departments of Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development, those pilots are paying real dividends to improve program performance. Jenny Rone, the assistant inspector general for data science at USDA, said over the past year, her staff has thrown the proverbial spaghetti against the wall to see how they can make the data work for them. Meanwhile, HUD is using data to measure risk was at the heart of several proof-of-concepts. Larry Koskinen, the department's chief risk officer, said the agency received an innovation grant from the Treasury Department to help make better sense of A-133 single audits. Hear more on this week's Ask the CIO, hosted by Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller.