Madison’s Introduction
Overview
Hello! My name is Madison Herdlicka and I am from Cedar Rapids, IA. In Fall 2025, I will be a Junior majoring in Community and Regional Planning and minoring in Environmental Studies. I chose my academic career path to help communites and regional networks be inclusive, resillient, and beautiful while also working to protect the environment and reduce city impacts.
Goals
Post-graduation, I hope to work as a planner in the public sector for a local government. Tackling affordable housing, climate action, historic preservation, land use, economic health and development, and many other opportunities and problems existing in rural and urban communities.
Data Science
Data science is a crucial factor in planning to inform decision making. My previous experience with data science has come from courses including Fundamentals of GIS, Intermediate GIS, and Urban Analytical Methods, where I have had to use various datasets to project population, calculate diversity indexes, assess housing affordability, and perform spatial and economic analyses. Without data science, the planning profession would struggle to make informed community policies and plans. Below is a GIS project I worked on in Intermediate GIS, exploring waste management service equity in Linn County, IA.
Hobbies
Outside academics, I love hanging out with friends, thrifting, traveling, trying new foods, and listening to music. My favorite place I have traveled to is Dublin, Ireland. My most recent travel was to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for a field travel course, where we met with city and ski resort planners, housing administration, and historic preservation representatives to learn about the city’s housing crisis and other initiatives. My most looked forward to travel is the Spring 2026 study abroad trip to India to study transportation and smart cities.
Dublin, Ireland
DSPG Goals
Throughout my time in the DSPG Program, I look forward to expanding my data science skills by contributing to meaningful projects. I am especially excited to learn and apply coding skills for the first time. In relation to data science, I am skilled in using GIS applications, taking my time to create outputs that are done correctly and look nice, and being open and ready to learn as many new things as possible. From the DSPG Program, I would like to learn how to use Tableau to visualize analyzed data and be comfortable using Git and GitHub. The skills I wish to gain from this program will further my ability to use data science in my academic and career path. I plan to improve these skills by learning collaboratively with the other program members and implementing them into our project.