Xiaoting Sun, who is pursuing a Masters in Computational Analysis and Public Policy (MSCAPP) at Harris Public Policy, spent her summer with EPIC Postdoctoral Scholar Andy Hultgren on a research project that sought to determine how firms respond to the discovery that their products may be harmful and how they face future regulation. Sun helped construct a novel dataset of scientific discoveries of product harms.
“This internship enlightened me to how computer science could help solve real problems in academic research. I was able to hone various skills that I learned in my first academic year in the MSCAPP program and especially enjoyed diving deep into the record-linkage techniques, as I merged two large-scale datasets by the string matching tools. Working with my mentor, Andy, was a precious journey, as he deepened my understanding of industrial organization and econometrics in the environmental area. With these take-aways, I see EPIC as better preparing me for my academic career both methodologically and theoretically.”