Research Design

Claudia von Vacano, Ph.D.

Founding Executive Director, P.I., Research Director, FSRDC

Dr. Claudia von Vacano is the Founding Executive Director and Senior Research Associate of D-Lab and Digital Humanities at Berkeley and is on the boards of the Social Science Matrix and Berkeley Center for New Media. She has worked in policy and educational administration since 2000, and at the UC Office of the President and UC Berkeley since 2008. She received a Master’s degree from Stanford University in Learning, Design, and Technology. Her doctorate is in Policy, Organizations, Measurement, and Evaluation from UC Berkeley. Her expertise is in organizational theory and...

The Case for Including Disability in Social Science Demographics

October 15, 2024
Jane (Mango) Angar
by Mango Jane Angar. As we celebrate Disability Awareness Month at the D-Lab alongside the UC Berkeley scholarly community, how can we, as social scientists, individually promote accessibility and inclusion? To advance accessibility, we should focus on addressing the barriers faced by individuals with disabilities, using our research to provide insights for effective policy recommendations. Although most of us do not focus on disability-related issues, including disability as a demographic characteristic in our data collection can greatly enhance our understanding of diverse populations and improve the comprehensiveness of our analyses. This small step can contribute to broader efforts toward inclusion and social equity.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Fundamentals

October 17, 2024, 3:00pm
Are you starting a research project at UC Berkeley that involves human subjects? If so, one of the first steps you will need to take is getting IRB approval.

Tom van Nuenen, Ph.D.

Data/Research Scientist, Senior Consultant, and Senior Instructor
D-Lab
Social Sciences
Digital Humanities

I work as a Lecturer, Data Scientist, and Senior Consultant at UC Berkeley's D-Lab. I lead the curriculum design for D-Lab’s data science workshop portfolio, as well as the Digital Humanities Summer Program at Berkeley.

Former research projects include a Research Associate position in the ‘Discovering and Attesting Digital Discrimination’ project at King’s College London (2019-2022) and a researcher-in-residence role for the UK’s National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction, and Adversarial Influence Online (2022). My research uses Natural Language Processing methods to...

Anusha Bishop

Availability: By appointment only

Consulting Areas: Python, R, Cloud & HPC Computing, Data Sources, Data Visualization, Geospatial Data, Maps & Analysis, Machine Learning, Research Design, Cluster analysis, Experimental design, Hierarchical Models, High dimensional statistics, Means Tests, Nonparametric methods, Regression Analysis, Software Output Interpretation, Spatial statistics, Bash or Command Line, Excel, Git or Github, RStudio

Elaine (Hua) Luo

Data Science Fellow 2024-2025
Graduate School of Education

Elaine (Hua) Luo is a PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Education, School Psychology PhD program. Her research interests focus on adolescents’ identity development and well-being under the transactional influence of entities in their socio-ecological systems. In her research, Elaine has utilized not only quantitative but also qualitative and mixed methods to study her research topics of interest. Before coming to Berkeley, Elaine earned her Master’s in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education and her Bachelor of Art in Education Sciences from...

Survey Fundamentals

February 21, 2024, 1:00pm
This two-hour workshop offers a comprehensive introduction to designing and conducting survey studies. Tailored for beginners, it provides clear, step-by-step guidance complemented by concise examples, practical considerations, and useful support materials. Participants will learn the entire process, from formulating a research question to creating, administering, and analyzing surveys, as well as interpreting results and communicating their findings.

Democratizing Our Data

August 26, 2021, 10:00am
There is enormous interest in building a better understanding of how evidence and data can inform policy. New possibilities have opened up to enable data to be shared and used across states and agencies. One is a technical approach – the Administrative Data Research Facility – which provides a secure environment within which education, training, and workforce data can be shared across agencies and states. The other is human – the Applied Data Analytics training program – which trains government agency staff how to combine and use the data to serve their agency missions. Over 650 participants from over 150 agencies have participated and produced new products and new networks in the process. This presentation discusses the approach sponsored by the California Department of Social Services, joint with the Department of Education and the Economic Development Department. The D-Lab worked with the Coleridge Initiative to successfully combine the two approaches. The presentation will also address the broader vision of how approaches like this can serve to democratize data for the United States.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Fundamentals

February 16, 2024, 9:00am
Are you starting a research project at UC Berkeley that involves human subjects? If so, one of the first steps you will need to take is getting IRB approval.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Fundamentals

November 7, 2022, 12:00pm
Are you starting a research project at UC Berkeley that involves human subjects? If so, one of the first steps you will need to take is getting IRB approval.