Liya Ding is a Data Scientist for the DSI and the Center for Living Systems under Margaret Gardel. She received an M.S. degree from the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering at Zhejiang University in 2003 and a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ohio State University in 2009. Subsequently, she did postdoctoral training at the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Ohio State University, the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, and the Department of Cell Biology at the UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Her professional trajectory includes roles as a Scientist at the Allen Institute for Cell Science, and later as an Associate Professor at the Institute for Brain and Intelligence at Southeast University.

Her interests and fields of research are in computer vision, data science, machine learning, and computational cell biology, with a focus on microscopy image processing and quantitative data analysis.

Launa is a software engineer II responsible for executing Data Clinic projects with student teams in conjunction with the 11th Hour Project, as well as internal projects for the DSI. She received her bachelor’s degree in the humanities at Princeton University and her master’s degree in Computational Analysis and Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the University, she worked as an adult education instructor and then as a software consultant at a Microsoft partner company.

David Jacobson is the Data & Engineering Manager for the Data Science Institute Core Facility team. David specializes in leading machine learning and data science teams to develop practical solutions to complex real-world problems. His work is focused on data science projects for social good, especially related to climate, agriculture, human rights, and global health.

Prior to joining DSI, David has led data science teams in biotech, academia, and software technology, most recently at Meliora Therapeutics, an AI startup for small-molecule cancer drug development, and for the Colorado School of Public Health COVID-19 Modeling Group, where his team developed novel approaches to modeling the spread of COVID-19 and the impact of government policy. He holds a BA in Mathematics from Amherst College.

Jim Pivarski is a data scientist/engineer who has worked in and out of academia. He was trained as a particle physicist with a Ph.D. from Cornell and helped to commission and analyze first data from the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva. He then worked as a data science consultant at Open Data Group, analyzing data from commercial clients, and then at Princeton, developing analysis software for physicists and promoting better integration with the world beyond academia. Jim is the original author of Awkward Array, a NumFOCUS affiliated project with thousands of users. Now he is analyzing data at U. Chicago’s Data Science Institute for the 11th Hour Project and its philanthropic goals.

Dr. Ross is an experienced data science executive and academic leader who specializes in leveraging business, engineering, and data to optimize decision-making. His various roles have ranged from architecting and designing production ML/AI systems, to hiring, growing, and leading engineering and data science teams.

Previously, Dr. Ross led the data science and backend engineering efforts at The Meta, an esports training platform used by millions of competitive gamers. Before joining The Meta, Dr. Ross was a Professor of Data Science at the University of San Francisco, where his research focused on how to effectively use data and data science techniques to answer business questions. During this time, he was also the Assistant Director of the University of San Francisco’s Data Institute, where he led and developed academic-industry partnerships to create a world-class masters of data science program. Under his leadership, the Data Institute placed hundreds of students into top data science positions in both the private and public sectors, with a job placement rate of over 90% within 3 months of graduation. As a consultant, he spearheaded data efforts at leading tech companies in the video and online game industry, from early-stage startups to multinational companies.

Dr. Ross received his PhD from UCLA, his Masters from UC Davis, and his Bachelor of Science from UC Berkeley. He has published papers in a variety of journals as well as given talks in both academic and industry settings.

Trevor is a Software Engineer II at the DSI. He helps social impact organizations to enhance their operations, research, and communication by utilizing software engineering and data science tools. His work focuses on agriculture, human rights, energy, and marine technology. Trevor also mentors student teams in the Data Science Clinic. Before DSI, Trevor worked as a research assistant at Argonne National Laboratory. Trevor has a BS in Computer Science from MIT.