U.S. Census Bureau

Gunnison has been supporting the Census Bureau since 2003 under multiple engagements. These projects consist of some of the most complex and mission critical services at the Census Bureau.  We have assisted multiple USCB divisions in architecting scalable solutions to enhancing its core tabulation system to produce the tabulations.

2020 Census and ACS Tabulation (“TAB”) System

In 2017 the Census Bureau selected Gunnison to join forces with the ACS-Decennial Tabulations Branch to enhance its core tabulation system to produce the 2020 Census tabulations, leading directly to the dissemination of the 2020 Census data, one of our nation’s most critical data efforts. This system replaces the multi-million dollar SuperCross system used for the 2010 Census. The improved, shared tabulation system is supporting ACS 1-yr and 5-year data products, Decennial data products, and various PUMS products, achieving operational efficiencies, improved performance and reduced production costs.

Geographic Update Partnership Software (GUPS)

Gunnison Consulting Group developed the Geographic Update Partnership Software (GUPS), the US Census Bureau’s new software for local government participants to load, edit, and display geospatial boundary and feature data, as well as perform reviews of changes and generate output files that the GEO will use to update the U.S. Census Bureau’s Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). GUPS supports the geographic data collection needs of the 2020 Census and other Census programs.

GUPS received a Bronze Medal Award from the U.S. Census Bureau for its intuitive design, optimal performance, simplicity and ease of use, and the breadth of functionality provided in just 8 months of development.

Listing and Mapping Application

Gunnison provides technical leadership supporting the development of the Census Bureau’s corporate Listing and Mapping Application (LiMA)—a mobile field data collection system that enables field workers to gather “on the ground” geospatial information in support of survey frame development. At its core the LiMA system provides highly accurate updates to the Census Bureau’s Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) database. The LiMA system is an instrumental component of the Census Bureau’s suite of solutions deployed in support of the upcoming 2020 Census operations.

Mobile Case Management

When the US Census needed a mobile case management solution for its 9,000 field workers, Gunnison delivered a supplier-neutral app that enables users to be spatially aware in real-time, replacing their paper maps and dramatically reducing the time needed to identify locations in the field. We delivered a solution that we architected to be scalable for US Decennial 2020 Census volumes to support up to 500,000 field workers.

American Community Survey Development and Testing

We implemented full end-to-end testing processes, environments, and test data for the ACS/PRCS internet implementation in 2013. Business process improvements included new test management (HP ALM) and code management tools (SubVersion), SharePoint, specification development and management, and interface control documents (ISACDs).

Gunnison also worked with ACSO to prototype new control and integration software for data received from survey response modes, using an agile framework and Scrum methods. We continue our support today with complex changes in SAS, C, Perl and other languages and tools to the forms, variables, data cleansing and editing procedures, imputation, weighting and tabulations.

Decennial Census Non-Response Follow Up

Gunnison developed and supported the Non-Response Follow-Up (NRFU) data review systems (including Update/Enumerate and Person Interviewing-collectively called Census MaRCS) for quality control on 2010 enumerators and selecting cases for QC followup. This web based system supported over 6,000 and received rave reviews from field and Headquarters users alike.

Decennial Census Coverage Measurement

Gunnison performed full systems development life cycle implementations for Person and Housing Unit clerical matching systems (MaRCS) with user-friendly and intuitive interfaces. These systems involved complex matching algorithms and methodologies for 2010 Census coverage measurement evaluations.

Administrative Records Linking

Gunnison developed administrative records applications and advanced processing techniques, to include match probabilities and geocode, name, DOB and household composition linking. Partnered with NORC and Westat, efforts included Person Validation System (PVS) enhancements, a 2010 Census Match Study and a NRFU Simulation study.

Quality Information for Successful Printing II (QUISP II)

A printing quality assurance standalone laptop with integrated scientific measurement devices, linked to a web portal with summary QA and production data, for near real-time operational control of high-speed printing at vendor sites. System is still in use by the National Processing Center.

Decennial Census Paper Data Capture Data Quality

Gunnison and our partner ADI, LLC implemented independent OCR/OMR tools and paper forms to analyze paper data capture quality. We developed and operated a full independent QC system called Paper Data Quality (PDQ), which performed near real-time QA on the DRIS contractor data capture operations.

Postal Tracking Technologies

We developed a postal tracking repository, which captured and enabled evaluations of all USPS Confirm Service data from the 2008 Dress Rehearsal and 2010 Census.

Decennial Census Program Management

Gunnison participated in testing, writing requirements, and source selection of both the 2010 DRIS and 2010 Print Programs from 2003-2011. We then assisted Census to manage these contracts by writing program documentation (Risk Plans, Contract Surveillance Plans) and performing technical and contract oversight of these massive programs, totaling over $600M. Further, we provided senior-level security expertise to assist the programs through all Certification and Accreditation (C&A) processes.

Economic Census

Gunnison assisted with defining requirements, testing and validating the 2012 Economic Census Direct Internet Reporting mode.

Text Placement System and MIM Text Editor

TPS has been supported by Gunnison and MapText Inc. for the Geography Division’s automated map text placement requirements for over 14 years, and is a standard at Census for production of all public map products. While most companies show static maps via tiling, we have automated text placement dynamically on generated maps. We continually enhance the TPS with new features for labeling of point, line and area features. In 2010 we developed a new graphical tool for interactively positioning and editing feature labels on maps in Map Image Metafile (MIM) format.