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AI.Data Lab students solve real-world challenges with data science
Media Contact
Ashlee Gardner

Emory’s AI.Data Lab program began two years ago as a small, department-specific experiential learning program with around 10 students. This semester, an impressive 80 students participated in the university-wide program, conducting data science and artificial intelligence research to address themes like food insecurity, local business development and bias in art.

On the evening of Dec. 10, student teams assembled among peers, faculty, staff and project sponsors to present the results of their work at the AI.Data Lab Research Showcase. Following individual team presentations, attendees enjoyed a reception and poster exhibition.

Originally conceived by Kevin McAlister, director of undergraduate research and assistant teaching professor in the Department of Quantitative Theory and Methods, AI.Data Lab is now co-directed by him under the auspices of Emory’s Center for AI Learning, where it has expanded significantly.

Using datasets provided by Invest Atlanta, TechBridge, The Carter Center and the Michael C. Carlos Museum, students applied a variety of programming and data science methodology to solve specific challenges for their sponsor organization.

“Our project partners supplied the data and the problems that needed to be solved, and the students were given complete freedom to set their research direction and come up with strategies on how to meet their goals. These teams really exceeded our expectations with their initiative and creativity,” said Tommy Ottolin, who co-directs the program with McAlister and is the assistant director of programs for the Center for AI Learning.

There were more than 140 applicants for this semester’s program, and Ottolin is looking forward to serving more students in next semester’s cohort. Starting next spring, undergraduate participants can elect to receive Experience and Application (XA) General Education Requirement credit for their participation. Applications are now open for the spring semester AI.Data Lab. Interested students can apply here or contact Tommy Ottolin for details.

Project Sponsors, Projects and Teams

Invest Atlanta is Atlanta’s official economic development agency. AI.Data Lab teams were asked to visualize Atlanta's current business landscape geographically to identify over or under-represented industries throughout the city. Teams synthesized data visualizations, socioeconomic factors and historical context to develop a compelling narrative about industry clustering.

  • College Demographics and Business Location Decisions
    Team Members: Annie He, Sophie Hurwitz, Alice Kim, Kaavya Muthuganesan, Caitlyn Ye
  • Predicting Economic Prosperity in Atlanta:Using Industrial Business Clusters and Home Ownership
    Team Members: Stephanie Ma, Henry Ning, Ada Jiang, Joy Cheng, Joshua Han
  • Economic Mobility Scores and Key Economic Indicators
    Team Members: Shiqi Hu, Caleb Kim, Boqiang Li, Jichun Zhao
  • Atlanta as the next Silicon Valley? Mobility Scores vs. Industry Mapping
    Team Members: Katherine Vonder Haar, Laura Zang, Rohan Agrawal, Minjoo Kim, Coralynn Yang, Hansen Xu

TechBridge is an Atlanta-based nonprofit that provides IT consulting and technology services to other nonprofit organizations. TechBridge’s AI.Data Lab projects were aimed at establishing increased visibility into all tiers of their food insecurity “ecosystem,” from distributors to food banks to customers.

  • Dashboard Development: Evaluating Donation Aspect Performance Metrics to Increase Donor Volume
    Team Members: Nate Hu, Suhayb Ahmedin, Grace Petrov, Yafen Chen
  • Impact of Environmental Factors on TechBridge Food Bank Transactions
    Team Members: Yushu Fan, Yiran Tao, Athena Tian, Max Jiang, Jackson Fang
  • Predicting Food Bank Demand in Georgia Using Food Weight and Economic Indicators
    Team Members: Minyang Li, Elamin Elayed, Evelyn Shi, Erik Frenes
  • Automated Food Categorization and High-Waste Analysis
    Team Members: Yunxiao Li, Ishaan Jain, Jonathan Wang, Gabby Jones
  • Macroeconomic Indicators and Food Pantry Demand
    Team Members: Charlize Samuels, Kenneth He, Huan Nguyen, Molly Murphy

The Carter Center seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy and improve health worldwide. These projects focus on establishing political, sociological or ideological research questions that can be examined through social media posts using Junkipedia and Logically.ai.

  • Shaping Voter Decisions: The Evolving Role of Economic Discourse in Election Years
    Team Members: Zachary Etzoni, Oscar Ni, Aashman Sirvastava, Phoebe Pan, Nelly Rebollar Vergara
  • Sentiment Disparity Across Media-Linked Political Tweets
    Team Members: Jillian Koenig, Swati Rajwal, Tina Piltner, Joseph Ukpong, Tashfia Noor
  • Political Social Media: Sentiment, Current Issues vs. Public Engagement Levels
    Team Members: Lily Wang, Maanu Obalapuram
  • The 2024 Presidential Election: An Analysis of Racially Charged Sentiment
    Team Members: Winnie Lau, Innocent Mukoki, Zhiyi (Yolanda) Li, Ronald Kanyepi, Austin Beale
  • Sentimental Analysis and Position Exploration of Social Media
    Team Members: Nika Huang, Aryn Xing, Shan Lu, Nihal Khatwani

The Michael C. Carlos Museum, located on the Emory campus, has the largest ancient art collection in the Southeast. The projects sponsored by the Museum aim to innovate or improve the current technology pipeline focused on identifying, mitigating and removing bias in the artifact database. 

  • Art Bias Organization
    Team Members: Santiago Vazquez, Vicente Martinez, Satvik Elayavalli, Charles Cook, Caroline Zeipel, Raasikh Kanjiani
  • Diffusion Model for Bias Verification
    Team Members: Molly Han, Justin Lim, Charlington Coulanges, Lina Li, Alix Morales, Daniel Nickas, Leah Loukedis
  • Using Image Detection to Address Potential Bias in Artifact Descriptions
    Team Members: Jessie Ni, Kultum Lhabaik, Mori Schacter, Hamza Alkadir, Diana Duarte Salina

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