D-Lab is currently closed to the public (virtual space, front desk, workshops, new consulting requests, and consulting drop-ins). If you have an open consulting request, we are finishing up your existing request from May 7 to May 14 via email or scheduled individual Zoom sessions.

We plan to re-open our doors and begin providing services when fall semester begins in August 2021. Our re-opening date is still to be determined, but we will let you all know our plan as we get closer to early August. Our newsletter updates over the summer will change from our regular weekly updates instead to occasional updates as we have information to share.

We hope everyone has a great rest of the semester!
If you have questions, please email: dlab-frontdesk@berkeley.edu

 

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Machine Learning in Poverty Measurement
 

       "According to The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) from the United Nations, the first goal is to "end poverty in all its forms everywhere". However, a common method to measure poverty is census data or large sample research, which collects data from a large sample size. The cost for conducting these researches is even higher in low-income areas due to the scarce infrastructure.
       As technology develops, scholars and researchers have begun to apply new techniques and massive machine-generated data sources to measure poverty. In this blog, I discuss three general trends in machine learning about poverty measurement and some concerns in the current application..."

To learn more about how Cheng analyzes Machine Learning to measure poverty, view Cheng's full blog here!

D-Lab is hiring a Postdoctoral Scholar

D-Lab is seeking a postdoctoral candidate for the UC Berkeley Undergraduate Data Science at Scale program, that aims to implement, scale, and propagate a novel prototype for undergraduate data science education through a collaboration between UC Berkeley’s Data Science Education Program, Social Sciences D-Lab, and two partner institutions with diverse student bodies, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and Mills College (Mills).

The Postdoctoral scholar will support a research agenda with a set of broad questions that are generalizable to undergraduate data science education in many types of four-year institutions. Pedagogical questions include issues related to the impacts of exposure to active learning, team-based learning, near-peer teaching, and scientific identity. Evaluation questions will assess the effectiveness of outreach strategies, strategies of recruitment and support for underrepresented students in data science.

If you are interested, please visit here for more information and to apply. The first application review date is May 25, 2021.

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D-Lab is seeking Data Science Fellows

D-Lab is looking to onboard a new cohort of Data Science Fellows for the fall 2021 semester. The D-Lab Data Science Fellows program is designed to give outstanding UC Berkeley students and researchers the opportunity to advance their data science training within the D-Lab’s diverse and intellectually vibrant community. We offer participants a supportive mentorship and peer-learning environment in which they can apply their expertise and knowledge, gain professional teaching and leadership skills and connect with industry and public sector partners.

You can learn more about our Fellows program here and you can apply here. We are accepting applications through end of day on Monday, June 14th.

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D-Lab is hiring full fee remission GSRs

D-Lab is seeking full fee remission GSRs for the fall 2021 semester. We are looking for scholars with software and programming knowledge and instructional experience.

If you are interested, please apply here.

Securing Research Data Working Group
May 24 | 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM | Zoom Link
Speakers: Alison Henry and Julie Goldstein

Alison Henry, Chief Information Security Officer, and Julie Goldstein, Information Security Policy Manager, on the new Roles and Responsibilities policy for data security.

The goal of this working group is to understand issues around sensitive/restricted use of research data from a variety of views - especially from the perspective of Berkeley researchers who need and use such data and the staff and units who support that. We will also seek to develop concrete solutions and products - whether it is environments, model security plans or data use agreements or compendia of local data or resources. The third goal of this group is to provide input to IT and other organizations working on developing a set of suggested solutions to provide to campus leadership.

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ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization
October 5-9  | More Info

The inaugural ACM conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms and Optimization (EAAMO ’21) aims to highlight work where techniques from algorithms, optimization, and mechanism design, along with insights from other disciplines, can help improve equity and access to opportunity for historically disadvantaged and underserved communities.

The conference is organized by the Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG) initiative and builds on the MD4SG technical workshop series and tutorials at conferences including ACM EC, ACM COMPASS, and WINE.

EAAMO ’21 will feature keynote presentations and panels and contributed presentations on research papers, surveys, problem pitches, datasets, and software demonstrations.

In line with the MD4SG core values of bridging research and practice, the conference aims to provide an international forum for researchers as well as policy-makers and practitioners in various government and non-government organizations, community organizations, and industry to build interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder research pipelines.

Graduate Student Researcher for Natural Language Processing

Seeking a summer GSR to apply Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for analyzing raw speech audio data of parent-child interactions. The GSR will support Professors Supreet Kaur (Economics) and Mahesh Srinivasan (Psychology) on a new interdisciplinary project at UC Berkeley focused on understanding how poverty impacts parent-child interactions and child development by using raw long-form in-home audio recordings. 

This position can be up to full-time during summer 2021, with the option to extend into the 2021-2022 academic year.

To apply, please fill out this short google form by May 13th.

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HUM 295 The Human Experience within Art, Technology, and Data

This seminar will focus on the project of synthesizing the interdisciplinary fields of visual art, performance, music, digital technologies, applied data science, and critical studies in the humanities to create new opportunities for innovators interested in a post-anthropocentric and a socially and environmentally balanced future. The courses are open by application and include a $1,300 department award/research stipend for each student.

If interested, please view the full description and apply here by May 15th.

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Assistant Professor, Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute

UC San Diego invites applications from outstanding candidates for an open-rank (tenure-track or tenured) faculty position for a primary appointment at the Halicioglu Data Science Institute (HDSI) with an optional joint appointment in another academic department. HDSI welcomes outstanding candidates who advance research at the intersection of Data Science and Health Sciences/ Humanities/Social Sciences. A successful candidate should use and/or develop Data Science methods to study important societal questions related to Black communities anywhere in the US, Africa, or the Black Diaspora.

For more info and to apply, see the announcement!

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Graduate Student Researcher for WordPress

Bryan Wagner, a professor in the English department, is seeking a GSR for work on a grant-funded project that will be using WordPress and Pressbooks (built on WordPress). This project will begin in January 2022, running for a calendar year. The position will likely top at 15% per semester.

If interested, please reach out to Bryan Wagner at  bwagner@berkeley.edu. In addition to GSRs, Bryan is also able to hire someone independently. 

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