Data Science

Mapping Time-Series Satellite Images with Google Earth Engine API

July 17, 2023
by Meiqing Li. Remote sensing imagery has the potential to reveal land use patterns and human activities at a planetary scale. For example, nighttime light intensity extracted from can shed light on spatial patterns of human activities and settlements, especially in places where traditional data are scarce. This blog post introduces Google Earth Engine (GEE) as a general purpose tool to extract time-series remote sensing data from GEE data catalog. I walk through using GEE to obtain data, filter by time and geographic region, and visualize it on static and interactive maps.

D-Lab & Graduate Division create inclusive data science summer program

August 9, 2023
by Vanessa Navarro Rodriguez. UC Berkeley's Social Sciences D-Lab and Graduate Division created the Data Science for Social Justice Program to address underrepresentation in data science. The program teaches diverse students critical data analysis and its applications in addressing societal injustices. The 8-week free summer course for admitted University of California students focuses on Python programming, Natural Language Processing, and value-informed data practices. It aims to empower students from underrepresented backgrounds and to bridge STEM with social justice. This blog post elaborates on the program's creation and features one of the DSSJ students, Robin López, and his reasons for participating.

The Geography of Cannabis: Does California’s dual licensing program (de)criminalize cannabis and drive unnecessary anthropogenic activity in remote rural environments?

August 29, 2023
by Chevon Holmes. When California voters (de)criminalized cannabis production, the state’s dual licensure requirement forced local jurisdictions to create permitting programs or uphold prohibition. Many Counties developed ersatz zoning ordinances to regulate cannabis activities and hired staff to administer local permits. As an inspector, administrator, and project planner for Mendocino County from 2017-2021, I visited hundreds of cultivation sites and production facilities where I learned first-hand how two legal pathways impacted the ways in which operators could transition their businesses. This post details a dataset created to track, aggregate, and analyze the relationship between cannabis infrastructure and licensing.

Unlock the Joy and Power of Reading in Language Learning

August 21, 2023
by Bowen Wang-Kildegaard. I share my story of how reading for pleasure transformed my English speaking and writing skills. This experience inspired my passion to promote the joy and power of reading to all language learners. Using natural language processing techniques, I dive into the Language Learning subreddit, revealing a trend: Learners are often highly anxious about output practices, but are generally positive about input methods like reading and listening. I then distill complex language learning theories into actionable language learning tips, emphasizing the value of extensive reading for pleasure, pointing to potential methods like using ChatGPT for customization of reading materials, and advocating for joy in the learning journey.

My Summer Exploring Data Science for Social Justice: Learnings, Tensions & Recommendations

September 5, 2023
by Genevieve Smith. This summer I joined the D-Lab hosted Data Science for Social Justice workshop at UC Berkeley diving into Python – including TF-IDF, sentiment analysis, word embeddings, and more – with a lens towards leveraging data science for social justice. My team explored a Reddit channel on abortion and used computational analysis to answer key questions related to abortion access from before versus after Roe vs. Wade was overturned. Computational social science is incredibly powerful, but I continue to grapple with tensions particularly as it relates to employing machine learning and large language in international research, and end with key recommendations for CSS practitioners.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems, the Poor, and Consent: A Feminist Anti-Colonial Lens to Digitalized Surveillance

September 18, 2023
By Alejandro Nuñez. Today’s digital age has created a sea of endless datafication where our everyday interactions, actions, and conversations are turned into data. The advancements of automated artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and their infrastructure in which they are created and trained on, have catapulted us into an era of consistent monitoring and surveillance.

James Hall

Consultant
Department of Statistics

James Hall is a graduate student in the Statistics MA program at University of California, Berkeley. He is a husband and father to three awesome kids. Originally from Baltimore, MD, James earned his bachelors in Mathematics at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY in 2011, and served as a U.S. Army officer. He’s served as a leader at multiple levels within large organizations with a professional focus on visualizing and communicating complex analysis to decision makers. James’ experience and coursework give him expertise in navigating different statistical methods,...

Suraj Nair

Data Science Fellow
School of Information

I am a PhD Student at the School of Information. My research interests lie at the intersection of development economics and machine learning, with a focus on the use of large scale digital data and new computational tools to study pressing issues in global development.

Emma Turtelboom

Data Science Fellow
Astronomy

I am a PhD student in the Astronomy department, and I study planets outside our own solar system. I'm interested in learning how the properties of host stars affect planetary systems. In my free time, I love swimming, hiking, reading, and baking.

Aniket Gupta

Discovery Fellow
School of Information

I am a first year masters student at UC Berkeley school of Information majoring in Information Management and Systems with a focus on Data Science and ML. I like to build optimized yet simple and scalable solutions powered by data using emerging AI technologies.