This summer, 50 high school and undergraduate students from around the world joined the UChicago community to explore the world of data science and AI research. For many participants, the  DSI’s summer programs are a first foray into the field. Over the course of the summer, students not only learned the fundamentals but also got the chance to apply them, in the lab as well as on projects with real-world impact.

The Data Science for Social Impact Summer Experience (DSSI) provides students the opportunity to hone their data science skills in research methods and teamwork, while learning how to engage with real-world data science projects in climate, health, policy, human rights, and more. Faculty across the 13 institutions in the Data Science for Social Impact Network nominated 26 students interested in tackling applied research data science projects for DSSI. After a two-week intensive bootcamp, DSSI students formed teams to take on social impact projects under the mentorship of faculty, preceptors, and postdocs.

For the DSI Summer Lab, 2025 marked a significant expansion: with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the program launched an AI+Science Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site, which sponsored 10 US undergraduates to undertake AI-enabled science research. The 23 undergraduate and high school students in Summer Lab were embedded in a faculty mentor’s research lab, in fields from materials science and biomedical science to climate policy and computational psychology, supporting ongoing workstreams or completing discrete project components of studies and pilot projects.

The DSI hosted extensive professional development activities for students across programs including career seminars; a weekly speaker series featuring UChicago faculty, program alumni, and industry representatives; and public speaking workshops. Scholars also had opportunities to enjoy Chicago beyond the lab, with programming including ice cream socials, picnics, and a tour of the city.

The eight weeks culminated in the Summer Research Symposium on August 8, where students presented their work to an audience of their peers and faculty mentors.

This year’s Summer Lab projects ranged from developing CNNs to score rats’ sleep in real time, to AI-assisted literature reviews to explore alternative energy sources and advancing neutrino event reconstruction with NuGraph3 architecture improvements. Many DSSI projects were sourced in partnership with the 11th Hour Project and their network of  grantee organizations across the fields of climate, health, policy, and human rights. Projects included developing a tool to track debt financing international development projects, chat bots to support advocates of small-scale farmers, and new features for the Climate Cabinet Scorecard (a national tool to hold state legislators accountable for their votes on climate and environmental justice legislation).

Read on for examples of this year’s projects. The full list of presenters can be found here; detailed abstracts of DSSI projects can be found here.

Climate Cabinet: Name Entity Recognition on Congressional Donation Records

Students: Jakob Ontiveros (California State University, Fresno), Drew Day (University of Texas, San Antonio), Gabriel Romero Torres (University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras), Sloan Louis (Spelman College), Adinai Niiazbekova (City Colleges of Chicago)

This team worked to develop named entity recognition (NER) systems to extract data from congressional donation records to increase transparency in political financing, and help identify patterns and connections in campaign contributions to inform election finance reform.

BankTrack: Commercial Debt Tracker

Students: Bidisha Dalai (University of Texas, San Antonio), Tracy Nguyen (City Colleges of Chicago), Sonia Pereira (North Carolina State University), Coral Fragoso Herrera (University of Illinois at Chicago)

The BankTrack team developed an automated system to track commercial debt patterns and provide insights into banks’ financial accountability and consumer protections.

A Growing Culture: Q&A Bot for Agricultural Regulations

Students: Peter Ronemous (Prairie View A&M University), Gerardo Rojas (California State University, Fresno), Allen Jones (Florida A&M University), Amari Gray (Morehouse College), Jibek Gupta (Howard University)

This team developed a chatbot to support advocates of small-scale farmers by providing accessible information about agricultural regulations and policies, demonstrating one way in which AI can be used to democratize access to regulatory information.

Real-time Automated Sleep Scoring in Rats using CNN

Student: Vincent Liao (University of Chicago)

Liao developed convolutional neural network models to automatically score sleep stages in laboratory rats, a strategy with potential to facilitate sleep research and neurological studies.

Active Simulation-Based Inference for Gravitational Lensing Instrument Design

Students: Joshua Hikida (University of Chicago), Alex E. Sanchez (Florida International University)

Hikida and Sanchez worked at the intersection of AI and astrophysics to explore ways AI can enhance our capability to study cosmic phenomena: they developed simulation-based inference methods for gravitational lensing studies which may contribute to the design of future observational instruments.

For many participants, the Data Science Institute programs represented their first foray into data science research. Delving into new fields under the guidance of world-class researchers, students encountered opportunities for growth and development. When asked to share her most challenging experience and proudest accomplishment from the summer, Avery Pratt, a DSSI student and Mathematics major at Spelman College, immediately cited hyperparameter tuning. But the struggle paid off: “Getting past that hurdle and actually seeing the results of our work is a very nice feeling. To be like ‘I actually did that in six weeks?’ That’s kind of cool.” She added, “I can leave here saying I know how to make my own AI model now, and not a lot of 19 year olds know how to do that.”

Hear more from this year’s Summer Scholars on their proudest accomplishments from the summer:

• Dickson Acheampong (Howard University)
• Enrico Madani (University of Chicago)

Congratulations to this year’s Summer Scholars on everything you’ve learned here in Chicago! Keep in touch, and we look forward to seeing what you do next.