A team of University of Illinois computer scientists and engineers developed a new computer algorithm that may make the task easier for state legislatures and fairer for their constituents. The researchers’ study, performed in collaboration with Douglas M. King, a lecturer of industrial and enterprise systems engineering, proposes a new, geographically based and data-driven algorithm that allows a user to specify the goal that guides the creation of the districts, then creates the districts computationally while enforcing other requirements, such as each district being a contiguous area.