The 2018 Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program was made possible with the support from Microsoft, and through project partnerships with the Applied Statistics & Data Science group in the Department of Statistics at UBC, BC Centre for Disease Control, Cascadia Urban Analytics Cooperative (CUAC), eScience Institute at the University of Washington, and City of Surrey.
2018 Projects
2018 Fellows
Nimrah Anwar
Nimrah is a second year Master of Chemical Engineering student at UBC. She has a breadth of experience in process engineering and has worked in FMCG, Fertilizer and Petroleum industries. She sees data science as a ubiquitous field that can be used to bring positive change in the society. Apart from her technical portfolio, Nimrah is deeply interested in women’s rights and education in underdeveloped countries and the politics surrounding it. On her free time, Nimrah enjoys cooking and eating good food.
Sizhe Chen
Sizhe is a recently graduated BSc student majoring in Statistics. She has always been interested in utilizing data to gain insight into real-world issues. Her previous undergraduate research assistant experience in an agricultural project has equipped her with hands-on skills in data manipulation, as well as enhanced her understanding of data processing in the field of social good. As a DSSG fellow, she will strive to further apply data analysis and computer programming techniques for social good.
Kenny Chiu
Kenny is a recent UBC graduate having completed his Bachelor of Science with a combined honours in Computer Science and Statistics. He has a diverse technical skill set having worked as a developer, human-robot interaction research assistant, and data analyst through the Computer Science Co-op program. With data science being at the intersection of his interests, he aims to learn more about the field and its applications to social development by working with DSSG.
Andy Fink
Andy has recently completed his fourth year as an undergraduate BSc. in the department of Geography. He has experience in data collection through field surveying and remote sensing and enjoys analyzing spatial data with GIS. His current research interests include network optimization through GIS analysis, various applications of LiDAR and smart cities. When he’s not at school or work, Andy enjoys going to the beach, playing croquet and skiing.
Cody Griffith
Cody completed his Master's degree at UBC in Applied Mathematics as of Spring of 2018. His research area consisted of studying the delayed dynamical behavior within a model for ocean dynamics. His theoretical results have since been observed within our oceans and pave the way for future exploration in this field. His interests have melded applied mathematics, statistics, and the broad area of machine learning to allow for a unique mathematical perspective into real problems and models. Cody hopes to use his time as a DSSG fellow to continue to broaden his available tools and make connections in the area of consulting where he plans to continue his career.
Andy Hong
Andy will soon be finishing his Bachelor of Science, majoring in Physics and minoring in Mathematics. After graduation, he is excited to find more opportunities to pursue his aspirations as a Data Scientist, while keeping up with his hobbies in learning different foreign languages and food. To Andy, the most exciting aspect of data science is finding quantitative insight and clearly communicating to a diverse audience. His natural curiosity has lead to his success in a plethora of research projects during his undergraduate training, but he hopes to bring his experience to industry and see a meaningful impact first-hand. As a foodie, he enjoys catching the latest food trends in Vancouver or may even hop on a plane and travel half-way across the world if it looks good enough.
Zhe Jiang
Zhe is a fourth year UBC student in Computer Science and Mathematics. He is highly interested in machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques. He enjoys working on interesting and challenging projects in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. As an international student, he studied in Italy, China, Israel and has an open perspective towards social issues. During his free time, he likes hiking, traveling, photography and Kendo.
Mia Kramer
Mia is an undergraduate in her fourth year working in the combined honours physics and astronomy program at UBC. She’s enjoyed doing data analysis and astronomy research in the past, and is very excited to be able to apply the same skills here on Earth. Outside of work, she enjoys stargazing, photography and music.
Jocelyn Lee
Jocelyn is a Bachelor of Computer Science (BCS) student in her final semester at the University of British Columbia. She completed her first BSc in Microbiology and Immunology, and her experiences in a genomics lab motivated her to explore data science. Since then, her diverse interests have included studying information security at ETH Zurich and working as a DevOps intern. Jocelyn is excited to expand her data science and statistics skills as a DSSG fellow, and contribute to data-driven policies for social good. In her free time, she enjoys travelling and baking.
Yiying (Catherine) Lin
Catherine is a third-year double majors student in computer science and statistics from University of British Columbia. She is interested in machine learning and data analysis. She is hoping to gain hands-on experience with real-world datasets and also ameliorate some social issues to the best of her ability by being part of the DSSG program. Besides study, she loves watching movies and reading detective fictions.
William Lu
William is a third-year undergraduate student in the Honours Computer Science program with a minor in Statistics. He is interested in the application of machine learning and data science to solving healthcare problems. He also hopes to pursue graduate studies in machine learning, artificial intelligence, or computer vision. In his free time, William enjoys playing the piano and reading nonfiction books.
Varoon Mathur
Varoon is a Software Engineer by day, a Global Health Activist by night, and a Data Scientist any time in between. He is a recent graduate of UBC's Bachelor of Computer Science program with a focus on machine learning, and has a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences from Queen's University, completing his honors thesis on neuro-degenerative disease. Having advised on global health policy and research at the World Health Organization and with UAEM, Varoon is most interested in developing health systems that address the unmet needs of vulnerable and marginalized populations.
Hyeongcheol (Tom) Park
Hyeongcheol is a Master of Science student in the Department of Statistics, UBC. He completed his Bachelor in English Literature and Applied Statistics from the Chung-Ang University, South Korea. He believes data science could contribute to relieving global issues such as poverty and hunger. In his free time, he loves to listen to music and go to swimming.
Kevin Wong
Kevin Wong is entering fourth-year Civil Engineering this fall, with a great passion in transportation planning, economics and data analytics. From his past experiences, he has become an avid proponent of evidence-based decision-making, with the help of analytical tools and proper economic reasoning. He wishes to become a transportation analyst someday and help improve urban mobility for the social good.
Nilgoon (Nelly) Zarei
Nilgoon is a PhD candidate at UBC in the interdisciplinary program. Nilgoon’s background is in Electrical and Computer Engineering and her current PhD research is engaged in developing more affordable and reliable tools for detection and identifying abnormally in different tissue sites. She has developed various algorithm using Machine Learning and Deep Learning techniques to classify prostate cancer grades, locate abnormality in cervix and renal carcinoma sub-type identifications. She believes using learning methods can improve disease diagnosis/prognosis and advanced medical devices, and has the potential to improve the life quality of patients significantly.
Kevin Zhu
Kevin recently completed his Bachelor of Science at UBC, with a double major in Mathematics and Statistics. He is interested in applying statistical and machine learning techniques to aid decision making processes in real life issues. Kevin is hoping to expand his statistical toolbox and further his skill set in data analysis with the opportunity provided by DSSG to do original research and tackle social problems.