MDI Scholars Spring 2023 Research Showcase

On May 3rd 2023, the Massive Data Institute of the McCourt School of Public Policy will host the MDI Scholars Research Showcase Spring 2023. MDI Scholars will present their research in the Healey Family Student Center Social Room at Georgetown University from 1:30-3:00 pm, followed by a reception from 3:00-4:00 pm.

The event begins with formal remarks, 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.

RSVP is required. 

Guests outside of the GU community, we request that you complete the necessary COVID form https://gucovid.my.site.com/visitor/s/?event=VE8007.

Please note that this event is following Georgetown University guidelines https://www.georgetown.edu/public-health-alert-coronavirus/event-and-visitor-guidelines/  

This event is wheelchair accessible. Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made by April 26, 2023 to Khai Booker at mdiresearch@georgetown.edu. A good faith effort will be made to fulfill requests made after April 26th.

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.
See here (Interactive map) or here (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.

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 .

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): 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 a way that improves people’s lives through responsible evidence-based research.

MDI Scholar Research Showcase Poster Titles

(poster titles subject to change; draft titles as of 1, May 2023)

Air Quality in Schools and Federal Spending on School Bus Electrification
Nikhila Iyer, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23 
Ethan Rosenbaum, McCourt School of Public Policy, Master of Public Policy ’23
Elise Rust, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, M.S. Data Science and Analytics ’23 
Collaborator(s): Dr. Michael Bailey
Partner Organization(s): Of interest for potential work with Aclima and Purple Air

American Community Survey: Administrative Record Use
Audrey McIntyre, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Amy O’Hara

Modeling Ukrainian Movement Patterns Using Organic Data
Didier Akilimali, Georgetown College, Computer Science M.S. ’23
Aidan Pizzo, Georgetown College, Mathematics ’23
Sonali Subbu Rathinam, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Lisa Singh and Dr. Nathan Wycoff

Contextualized Embeddings for Large-k Topic Models of Political Texts
Xinyu Li, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences Data Science and Analytics ’24
Haoxuan Weng, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’24
Collaborator(s): Dr. NaLette Brodnax

Killer Robots, the Climate Scam, and Poisonous Vaccines: Understanding Scientific (Mis)Information on Twitter
Fiona Calcagnini, Georgetown College Computer Science, Economics ’23
Sabrina Kwenda, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Science, Technology and International Affairs ’23
Rich Pihlstrom, Georgetown College, Computer Science B.S. ’24
Collaborator(s): Dr. Lisa Singh and Autumn Toney
Partner Organization(s): CSET

Supporting Efficient Federal Program Operations: Automating the LIHEAP Funding Formula
Alia Abdelkader, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Caroline Adams, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Maggie Sullivan, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Collaborator(s): Dr. Michael Bailey
Partner Organization(s): Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – Administration for Children and Families, Office of Community Service

Comparing the performance of three name-based race prediction models
Sai Srujana Illa, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Maria Alva and Dr. Jaren Haber

Using Agent-Based Models to understand disaster response
Yujie Chen, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences Data, Science & Analytics ’23
Naiqiu Zhan, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Evan Barba

DistrictView: Constructing a Large-Scale Database of U.S. School Board Meeting Transcripts
Natalie Smith, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’24
Abigail Wolfe, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Rebecca Johnson

Comparing Lexicon, Classic Learning, and Neural-Based Models for Sentiment Detection of Twitter Posts
Kate Liggio, Georgetown College, Computer Science B.S. ’24
Jenny Park, Georgetown College, Computer Science and Justice and Peace Studies ’24
Qihang Wang, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Lisa Singh, Dr. Ameeta Agrawal, and Yaguang Liu

Comparing Congressional Candidates Using Alternative Word Embeddings Approaches
Ryan Ripper, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Shaila Sundram, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Colette Yeager, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Michael Bailey

Exploring Civil and Criminal Legal System Interactions among those in Treatment for Substance Use Disorder
MinAh Kim, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Collaborator(s): Dr. Rebecca Johnson
Partner Organization(s): Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

Ingesting and using America’s largest building energy dataset
Sean Conner, McCourt School of Public Policy, Master of Public Policy ’23
Himangshu Kumar, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Yifan Liu, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Shaila Sundram, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Michael Bailey and Dr. Christopher Dick
Partner Organization(s): BlocPower

Comparing Variational Bayesian Approaches to Human Migration Modeling
Linpei Zhang, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Nathan Wycoff

Classifying Twitter Handles: Harnessing Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing for Social Media Analysis
Abby Fremaux, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’23
Hanjing Shi, Georgetown School of Arts & Sciences, Data Science and Analytics ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Lisa Singh, Yanchen Wang, Dr. Le Bao

Analyzing Carceral Ideology In Public and Private School Handbooks
Grace Jensen, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Sanha Tahir, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Collaborator(s): Dr. NaLette Brodnax

Fostering Civil Justice Through Analysis of Trends in Court Data
Ahmad Jandal, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Science, Technology, International Affairs, Concentration in Security ’23
Jordan Rinaldi, Georgetown College, Mathematics B.S. and Data Science and Analytics ’23
Collaborator(s): Dr. Amy O’Hara
Partner Organization(s): Civil Justice Data Commons

Data Communication and Community Engagement regarding the Environmental Impact Data Collaborative
Ellis Obrien, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’23
Minh Quach, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Ethan Rodriguez-Shah, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Fanni Varhelyi, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Collaborator(s): Dr. Michael Bailey

The Silent Epidemic: Documenting the Prevalence and the Socioeconomic Disparities in Undiagnosed and Uncontrolled Diabetes in the United States
Sean Hambali, McCourt School of Public Policy, Data Science for Public Policy ’24
Collaborator(s): Dr. Maria Alva