On Thursday, December 12, 2024, the Massive Data Institute of the McCourt School of Public Policy will host the MDI Scholars Research Showcase Fall 2024. MDI Scholars will present their research in the Healey Family Student Center Social Room at Georgetown University from 1:00-2:20pm, followed by a reception.
The event begins with formal remarks by Massive Data Institute Director Lisa Singh followed by student project teams presenting “flash talks” — a 60-second summary of their research. After the flash talks, MDI Scholars project teams will present their research posters.
To learn more about the research projects that the MDI Scholars contributed to this semester, please check out: https://mdi.georgetown.edu/announcements/mdiresearch-fall2024/
Accommodations: This event is wheelchair accessible. Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made by December 4, 2024 to mdiresearch@georgetown.edu. A good faith effort will be made to fulfill requests made after December 4th.
Transportation: Georgetown University is accessible for faculty, staff, students and visitors through many convenient transportation options, including our free university shuttle, public transportation, bicycling, carsharing and other means. Learn more about transportation options here. (new window)
See here (new window) (Interactive map) or here (new window) (PDF) for a Georgetown University campus map.
Taxi / Ridesharing: The recommended drop-off location is at the front gates of campus. Please inform your driver that your destination is Georgetown University or use the address 3700 O St. NW, Washington, DC 20057. Additional information on taxi / ride sharing is available here. (new window)
Visitor Parking: If you decide to drive to campus, please note there is construction happening on campus on the north side of campus. Visitor parking is available at Southwest Garage (Use 3611 Canal Road as the address for directions using GPS). Additional information on visitor parking is available here (new window).
About the MDI Scholars Program: The MDI Scholars program is an experiential learning opportunity for undergraduate and Master’s students to work on interdisciplinary research projects with professors and practitioners. These projects connect new forms of data and/or large-scale computing infrastructure to different public policy questions.
About the Massive Data Institute (MDI): At Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, the Massive Data Institute (MDI) is an interdisciplinary research institute that connects experts across computer science, data science, public health, public policy, and social science to tackle societal scale issues and impact public policy in ways that improves people’s lives through responsible evidence-based research. For more information on MDI, please visit https://mdi.georgetown.edu/
MDI Scholar Research Showcase Poster Titles
(poster titles subject to change; titles updated as of December 10, 2024)
Examining Demographic Disparities in Utah’s Juvenile Justice
Sheeba Moghal (She/Her), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’25
Collaborator(s): Amy O’Hara, Ph.D., James Carey, J.D.
Agricultural Pesticide Use and Effects on Migrant Farmworker Health
Ziwen “Jasmine” Jia (She/Her), McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’25
Katharyn Loweth (She/Her), McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’25
Vaishnavi Singh (She/Her), McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’25
Collaborator(s): Ioannis Ziogas, Ph.D.
Partner Organization(s): The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Examining Tensions Among Racial Advocacy Groups Through Fightin’ Words Analysis
Zining (Cathy) Wang (She/Her), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’25
Collaborator(s): Helge Marahrens, Ph.D.
Partner Organization(s): Muna Adem, Ph.D. (University of Maryland), Dina Okamoto, Ph.D. (Indiana University)
Improving the Quality of Voting Related Information on Social Media
Aiden Ehrenreich (He/Him), Georgetown College, Government & Computer Science ’26
Amy Li (She/Her), Walsh School of Foreign Service, Business and Global Affairs/Statistics & French ’26
Ann Lian (She/Her), McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’25
Rich Pihlstrom (He/Him), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’25
Collaborator(s): Lisa Singh, Ph.D., Sejin Paik, Ph.D., Mohamed Ahmed
Automating Federal Grant Programs: LIHEAP
Aastha Jha (She/Her), McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’25
Collaborator(s): Michael Bailey, Ph.D.
Partner Organization(s): Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services (OCS)
Analyzing the Presentation and Perception of DNA Evidence in Court
Jeffrey Gao (He/Him), Walsh School of Foreign Service, Mathematics & Computer Science ’25
Miranda Xiong (She/Her), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, History & Classics ’25
Collaborator(s): Lucy Qin, Ph.D., Elissa Redmiles, Ph.D.
Partner Organization(s): Center for Privacy and Technology
Secure Query System: Enhancing Evidence-Based Policymaking with Privacy Protection
Kangheng Liu (He/Him), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’25
Collaborator(s): Amy O’Hara, Ph.D.
Testing Canons of Construction: Syntactic Analysis of US Law Using CGELBank
Micaela Wells (She/Her), Georgetown College of Arts & Sciences, Linguistics ’26
Collaborator(s): Devika Tiwari, Meru Gopalan, Brandon Waldon, Ph.D., Nathan Schneider, Ph.D.
Near Miss Data: Refining Decision Making for Autonomous Vehicles
Vagdevi Sahasra Bandaru (She/Her), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Computer Science ‘25
Collaborator(s): Robin Dillon-Merrill, Ph.D.
Data Collection from Distributed Sensitive Sources
Maggie “Xinhe” Shen (She/Her), Georgetown College, Mathematics & Computer Science ’26
Joshua Wiesenfeld (He/Him), Georgetown College, Computer Science & Government ’25
Collaborator(s): Micah Sherr, Ph.D., Lisa Singh, Ph.D.
Exploring Secure Enclaves to Increase State Agency Data Access
Victor Chen (He/Him), Georgetown College, Computer Science ’27
Collaborator(s): Stephanie Straus, M.Ed., Amy O’Hara, Ph.D.
Advancing Sequence Clustering with Image Processing in Educational Assessments
Binhui Chen (She/Her), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’25
Collaborator(s): Qiwei Britt He, Ph.D.
CoxNet: A Deep Learning Framework for Predicting Rare Events in Social Sciences
William McGloin (He/Him), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’25
Collaborator(s): Ioannis Ziogas, Ph.D.
Designing a Secure Query System for Nonprofit Outcomes Research
Justin Liu (He/Him), McCourt School of Public Policy, Master of Public Policy ’26
Collaborator(s): Amy O’Hara, Ph.D., Jake Pasner, Ph.D., James Carey, J.D.
Risk Assessment of Generating Digital Replicas from Text-to-Image Diffusion Models
Jason Yi (He/Him), Georgetown College, Computer Science ’26
Collaborator(s): Rupayan Mallick, Ph.D., Sarah Adel Bargal, Ph.D., Elissa Redmiles, Ph.D.
Perceptions of AI Generated Art (Authorship, Ownership, Copyright Law)
Judy Wang (She/Her), Georgetown College, Political Economics and Studio Art ’27
Collaborator(s): Toni-Lee Sangastiano, Ph.D., Kristelia García, J.D., Elissa Redmiles, Ph.D., Wisdom Obinna, Cecile Duncan
Partner Organization(s): Gabriel Lima, Ph.D. (Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy), Nina Grgic-Hlaca, Ph.D. (Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy)
Clustering Near-Misses Through Topic Modeling
Gabriel Soto (He/Him), McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’25
Collaborator(s): Robin Dillon-Merrill, Ph.D.
Managing Brand Crisis and Customer Relationships on Social Media: Insights from Twitter in the Airline Industry
Zoucheng Hong (He/Him), Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics ’25
Collaborator(s): Frank Dong, Emisa Nategh, Ph.D.
Mapping Migration Policy and Sentiment in the Americas
Sergio Rodriguez Cifuentes (He/Him), Walsh School of Foreign Service, International Economics/Statistics, ’25
Adrian David Frauca (He/Him), Georgetown College, Computer Science & Mathematics, ’27
Sheryn Livingstone (She/Her), Walsh School of Foreign Service, Business and Global Affairs & Statistics ’26
Katie Merrill (She/Her), Georgetown College, Computer Science ’27
Lauren Stipe (She/Her), Walsh School of Foreign Service, STIA, International Development ’25
Mandy Sun (She/Her), Georgetown College, Computer Science, Film and Media Studies ’25
Collaborator(s): Lisa Singh, Ph.D., Katharine Donato, Ph.D., Ali Arab, Ph.D., Helge Marahrens, Ph.D.
Mining Online Activity for Migration Predictors in the Americas
Sergio Rodriguez Cifuentes (He/Him), Walsh School of Foreign Service, International Economics/Statistics ’25
Adrian David Frauca (He/Him), Georgetown College, Computer Science & Mathematics ’27
Sheryn Livingstone (She/Her), Walsh School of Foreign Service, Business and Global Affairs & Statistics ’26
Katie Merrill (She/Her), Georgetown College, Computer Science ’27
Lauren Stipe (She/Her), Walsh School of Foreign Service, STIA, International Development ’25
Mandy Sun (She/Her), Georgetown College, Computer Science, Film and Media Studies ’25
Collaborator(s): Lisa Singh, Ph.D., Katharine Donato, Ph.D., Ali Arab, Ph.D., Helge Marahrens, Ph.D.