mattprout
commented
6 years ago Update the paragraph discussing the animal classifiers to include using a microchip ID to populate information about the animal. Included the idea of allowing users to search for animals to adopt using a web portal.
This tool would help animal shelters effectively distribute their resources among the animals to minimize the loss of life and maximize adoptions. The model would predict the likelihood of adoption and euthanasia through a variety of variables, such as breed, circumstance of entry, health, etc.
Your intro is great. It very clearly outlines the problem, and the stats you choose to support it are compelling. Your idea is laid out clearly, and it's easy to see what it might look like in action.
To help with entering the animal's characteristics, could some of this data be collected via microchip? Surely they contain some information other than the owner's contact info.
I might remove this sentence or add more context: "A benefit of having a common service would be that shelters could search neighboring shelters for animals that people would like to adopt." It feels a little out of place where it is.
It would be cool to use the data from this tool to create a web-based portal for adopters. They could select traits they find desirable (and you could store that data too - knowing sought-after traits could help your model), and be shown a selection of animals matching their criteria.