Linh Dinh, an MSCAPP student at Harris Public Policy, worked with the Air Quality Monitoring team at the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC). As an aspiring data scientist, Linh helped analyze air quality data from communities around Chicago and built a prototype of a tool that would compare 3 different air quality data sources to help identify discrepancies and provide deeper insights into the data.
“I realized that thoroughly and correctly monitoring air quality data is not an easy task. Through working with the Air Quality Monitoring team at ELPC, I learned the importance and also the challenges of empowering youths and communities to get involved in monitoring factors affecting their health. I liked this internship because I had a chance to dive deep into various data sources and apply my analytical and programming skills. This experience provided me with a brand-new perspective on how communities can be engaged in the data generating process and be given back the autonomy of using such data.”