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Daniel A

- Research Program Mentor

MS at University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley)

Expertise

Financial services, humanitarian aid, public policy

Bio

I am a data scientist currently working as a Presidential Innovation Fellow supporting innovation and modernization efforts within the US federal government. Prior to this experience, I served as a senior data scientist at Workday, an enterprise software company. Prior to Workday, I served as a data scientist at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in the cash transfers unit. My experience entailed developing analytical solutions to support country offices around the world in their operations. Prior to joining WFP, I was a Senior Quantitative Risk Analyst at USAA for four years in a financial risk management capacity supporting the organization achieve its regulatory mandates. Prior to that, I worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for six years in a Risk Associate role. I have expertise in Python and R programming, statistical analysis and data science project deployment. My personal interests include public policy, global affairs and finance. My hobbies include looking after my two daughters (6 and 2 and half years old, respectively). I am interested in honing the interest in data science of young people.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Voter propensity project

Communication un⩘Breakdown is focused on using technology and data science to help community organizers reach specific populations for an empathy-based citizen engagement program known as “Deep Canvassing.” Leveraging a close relationship with People’s Action, voter demographic data, and responses from former and active Deep Canvass campaigns, we apply supervised machine learning and reinforcement learning techniques for our MVP, “Dynamic and Responsive Targeting System,” or DARTS, to find undecided voters for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, and subsequently, the Georgia Senate runoff. https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/projects/2020/communication-unbreakdown

Coding skills

Python, R, AWS, PostgreSQL, SQL, SAS, Stata

Languages I know

Spanish, Portuguese

Credentials

Work experience

United Nations World Food Programme (2019 - 2021)
Data Scientist
United Services Automobile Association (2015 - 2019)
Senior Quantitative Risk Analyst
Workday (2021 - Current)
Senior Data Scientist

Education

Brown University
BA Bachelor of Arts (2005)
Economics
Columbia University
MPA Master of Public Administration (2009)
Advanced Policy Analysis
University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley)
MS Master of Science
Data science

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