D-Lab is the largest on-boarding data science organization on campus, providing extra-curricular services that meet you where you are at. We help you learn data science tools and methods and apply them to your research.

How can we help? 

Workshops. D-Lab provides daily workshops on topics including but not limited to: R, Python, and Stata programming, maps and spatial analysis in GIS, survey design in Qualitrics, qualitative data analysis in MaxQDA, data visualization in Tableau, Excel for data analysis, and the latest techniques for text analysis and machine learning in R and Python.  Visit our calendar frequently as new workshops are added throughout the semester.

Consulting. D-Lab also offers one-on-one consulting on research design, data analysis, data management, and related techniques and technologies to all members of the campus community free-of-charge. This is a great way to get a second opinion on your research design, insights on a new method, help with a technical tool, or advise about available  data.  Make an appointment on our consulting page.

Working Groups. D-Lab hosts working groups that allow participants to dive into a topic, develop a community, advance their research interests and work on the cutting edge. While new-comers of any background are always welcome, the working group format works best when participants commit to ongoing collaboration. Returning working groups this Fall include the Computational Text Analysis, Qualitative Methods, Securing Research Data, GeoMatters, and the Machine Learning Working Groups. 

Projects. D-Lab also provides learning opportunities to students via research teams, online services, and projects for social good.  Examples of these projects include: 

  • Online Learning. We are proud to announce that Sage Publications is partnering with the D-Lab as one of their first data science online course developers and providers of learner support for SAGE Campus. The partnership has yielded a series of modules that introduce applied data science to social scientists. These learning modules demystify the tools and methods of an emerging field that is changing the way we collect, process, and analyze information.
  • Data Science for Social Good. D-Lab researchers are also working hard on real-world problems deploying Data Science for Social Good.  Data Science for Social Good is a meta-organization of the D-Lab that works on issues such as underrepresented minorities in data science, college going patterns in California, and hate speech.
  • Research Projects. The D-Lab has developed a theoretically informed codebook and hand labeled hate speech in approximately 9,000 online comments sourced from Reddit in June and July 2015 as well as October and November 2016. We subsequently applied supervised machine learning algorithms to differentiate hate speech from non-hate speech on this labelled text. This project is supported by the Anti-Defamation League, which works in partnership with various platforms.  

Community. What really makes D-Lab special is our community. Students, faculty and staff who use and provide our services, attend our events and work in our space create a diverse and supportive learning community. Our philosophy is IOKN2K: it's ok not to know. We all have learning gaps and can learn from each other.  D-Lab seeks to foster a safe, inclusive and respectful space for knowledge sharing.

Visit us! Please be sure to visit us often by stopping by 356 Barrows Hall or by visiting us online at dlab.berkeley.edu and on our github repository. There is always something new at the D-Lab and we are looking forward to partnering with you and finding new ways to support your research.  Join our mailing list to get our weekly newsletter of upcoming workshops and events.

 

 

 

Author: 

Claudia von Vacano

Dr. Claudia von Vacano is the Social Sciences D-Lab and Digital Humanities Executive Director. She is deeply committed to supporting the success of marginalized students including women, racial/ethnic minorities, first-generation college-going, and speakers of English as a second, and she has worked extensively with these groups at various stages of the educational pipeline. Dr. von Vacano has created outreach and intervention strategies through the UC Office of the President and she is currently the program director of a $3 million NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) initiative under the leadership of Faculty Director David J. Harding and with cross-university governance including the Associate Provost of Data Science and Information and Dean of the Information School, in the Computing, Data Science, and Society Division. She is the P.I. of measuring hate speech research project with the financial support of Google Jigsaw and BIDS—that employs IRT and Deep Learning. She is also co-PI with Karen Chapple, City Planning Chair, College of Environmental Design of a Chan Zuckerburg Initiative grant to provide professional development for housing professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each year through the D-Lab and Digital Humanities at Berkeley, Dr. von Vacano oversees programs including 300 computational and data-intensive workshops and 1,400 consultations. She co-developed the core curriculum for the Digital Humanities Summer-only Minor and Certificate program at UC Berkeley. She is the lead online course developer of the SAGE Campus, “Introduction to Applied Data Science Methods for Social Scientists.”