D-Lab

by Jaewon Saw. This blog post shares a story from a field experiment using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) to detect whale vocalizations in Monterey Bay. Most of the data got overwhelmed by noise from boat engines, wave motion, and cable instability. On the final day, a spur-of-the-moment...Read more about Decision-Making Under Pressure during My PhD: Lessons from whale songs and ocean noise

by Christian Caballero. From the threat of nuclear war to rogue superintelligent AI to future pandemics and climate catastrophes, the world faces risks that are both urgent and deeply uncertain. These risks are where traditional data-driven models fall short—there’s often no historical precedent,...Read more about Predicting the Future: Harnessing the Power of Probabilistic Judgements Through Forecasting Tournaments

by Victoria Hollingshead. FinTech promises to revolutionize financial inclusion by harnessing data science to reach populations historically excluded from formal financial systems. By analyzing digital footprints, mobile payments, and behavioral data, startups and financial institutions have the...Read more about Digitizing Inclusion: FinTech’s Promise and Pitfalls in the Global South

by Sohail Khan. Netflix knows what you like, but does it need to know your politics too? We often face a frustrating choice: share our data and be tracked, or protect our privacy and lose personalization. But what if there was a third option? This article begins by introducing the concept of the...Read more about Sharing Just Enough: The Magic Behind Gaining Privacy while Preserving Utility

by Amber Galvano. This tutorial builds on my previous post on Python for acoustic analysis, this time focusing on measuring vocal tract resonances without relying on sex-based assumptions. I demonstrate how to process audio files and vowel annotations using an adaptive method that optimizes the...Read more about Measuring Vowels Without Relying on Sex-Based Assumptions

by Ruiji Sun. We introduce and apply regression discontinuity to thermal comfort field studies, which are typically observational. The method utilizes policy thresholds in China, where the winter district heating policy is based on cities' geographical locations relative to the Huai River. Using...Read more about Causal Effect Estimation in Observational Field Studies of Thermal Comfort

by Elaine Luo. Adolescents constantly balance immediate impulses with long-term goals. Our research explored how adolescents differ in their tendency to think about immediate versus future consequences, and how these differences relate to academic performance, stress, and perceived life chances...Read more about Looking Ahead: How Adolescents’ Consideration of Future Consequences Shapes Their Developmental Outcomes

by Nanqin Ying. As social media platforms enforce stricter policies against unauthorized data collection, businesses and researchers must adapt to new API-based access models. This shift limits large-scale web scraping, impacting industries reliant on social media insights. The transition to paid...Read more about The Evolving Landscape of Web Scraping on Social Media Platforms

by Elijah Mercer. Data literacy is a powerful tool for empowerment, especially for historically marginalized communities. Through Data Cafecito at Roadmap to Peace and helping teach Data 4AC at UC Berkeley, Elijah Mercer helps bridge the gap between data, advocacy, and justice. Data Cafecito...Read more about Teaching Data Science as a Tool for Empowerment

by Taesoo Song. Asian Americans are often overlooked in discussions of racial inequality due to their high average socioeconomic attainment. Many academic and policy researchers treat Asians as a single racial category in their analysis. However, this broad categorization can mask significant...Read more about Why Data Disaggregation Matters: Exploring the Diversity of Asian American Economic Outcomes Using Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Data