Data Visualization

Blog of the Data Visualization & Communication Course at OSB-AUB

“This is my favorite part about analytics: Taking boring flat data and bringing it to life through visualization” John Tukey

GME Meme Stock and What It Represents

GME Meme Stock and What It Represents

by | Nov 26, 2022 | Dashboard, Team Project, Visualization

GameStop was heading towards bankruptcy, with hedge funds taking short positions in companies like GameStop, in which they borrow shares of the stock at a certain price under the expectation that its market value will be worth less when it’s time to actually pay for those borrowed shares. In other words, they are betting on the stock price dropping, however something unexpected happened, the Gamestop stocks surged being driven by retail investors — individuals who buy and sell stocks for their own gains, as opposed to professional investors working on Wall Street — on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets (WSB), a community 2.9 million-strong decided to buy up as much shares of stocks as a joke. That ended up reviving GameStop, incurring massive losses on the hedge funds, and shaking the stock market. This short squeeze – as it’s referred to – is not uncommon but it doesn’t tend to play out in this public or dramatic a manner leading this case to be the talk of every news outlet at the time.

This case perfectly encapsulated the volatility and unpredictability of the stock market, as well as how it can be influenced heavily by the everyday person. Such cases also emerged with Eli Lilly and their Twitter fiasco more recently.

As such we recommend the deployment of a brand followup division for social media from companies, as well as more rigorous bylaws implemented within social media platforms in order to control, contain, and possibly prevent such situations.

Team:
Omar El Khatib
Omar Zbibo
Abdallah Moucarri
Karim El Hajj
Bassel Abou Zahr

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

by | Nov 22, 2022 | Dashboard, Visualization

Because of its invaluable contribution to a more sustainable world, the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which are a set of 17 ambitious goals covering a variety of domains with goals to be achieved by 2030, incorporated “Life Below Water” as SDG 14. This goal comprises 10 targets and 10 indicators, which are the metrics used to identify our progress as a world on this goal’s targets. One main target, which will be the focus of this blog post primarily due to the fast deterioration observed by ecologists and marine scientists around the world, is target 14.5.

According to the United Nations’ official definitions for each of the SDGs, target 14.5 is defined as “By 2020, conserve at least 10 percent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information”. To measure the success of this target, indicator 14.5.1 has been generated as “coverage of protected areas in relation to marine areas”. Unlike other indicators, this one is set to be achieved by 2020 instead of 2030 due to its pressing matter and the degree at which the world is at risk of losing or permanently damaging this resource.

While efforts to meet the requirement were seen in some countries, the world is not only still far from reaching the set goal but also overdue on it’s promised goal.