College Park, MD--11/04/2013-- Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) is a Silver Sponsor of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) 2013 Fall Research Conference in Washington, DC on November 7th - 9th.  This year’s theme is “Power of the Past—Force of the Future.” According to the APPAM website, the event is a multi-disciplinary research conference that showcases a wide variety of issues through panels, roundtables, workshops, symposia and poster presentations.

In anticipation of changes needed in public policy research, Optimal has become a sponsor for the first time in order to highlight its Real-Time Framework, Road Map and Toolset using examples from projects over the past several years that include big data, international program evaluations, unstructured data analysis such as Internet and social media analysis, machine learning and predictive modeling.  In addition, Optimal staffers have been selected to present on topics such as "Evaluating Innovation Outcomes in Regional Cluster Initiatives" and "Using Social Media and Internet Data Analysis to Better Understand Target Populations."

In working with not only big data, but also innovation in public policy, Optimal advocates a comprehensive review of research methods, technological tools and processes.  Today’s policy makers are not only faced with a lot of information, but it is dynamic and typically long reports associated with the information at the end of a multi-year study are not effective decision making tools for them.  Optimal’s commitment to support policy makers with shrinking monetary and time constraints in this new environment is evident in its new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, where it has developed big data tools such as Revelo (the big data tamer) and RT Surveyor (Real-Time Surveyor) for  global location-based and concurrent survey data collection, analysis and reporting.  With rapid-cycle reporting and customized stakeholder reporting, program interventions can be more effective early on, save money in the long term and become self-sustaining with government agency staffing…allowing the government to commit resources to solving other issues.

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Optimal Solutions Group, LLC

Founded in 2000, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC is a nonpartisan public policy research and technical assistance firm that stands out by its quantitative expertise and innovative approaches to provide rigorous, data-driven research and technical assistance to government agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic foundations. Located at the University of Maryland’s M Square Research Park in College Park, Optimal is a leader in driving real-time public policy research. Optimal has 60+ employees, including multidisciplinary researchers with backgrounds in business, communication, economics, education, health policy, psychology, public policy, sociology, statistics, and urban planning. Optimal has four research centers: Health, Education, Housing, and Workforce Development and Social Policy.