Congratulations to our MSDA Graduates!
The lobby of the PSTC buzzed with quiet pride as students, family, friends, and faculty gathered to celebrate the Master’s in Social Data Analytics (MSDA) class of 2026. The atmosphere was filled with excitement as students shared posters of research projects completed during their courses or internships. The presentations showcased a brilliant array of applied data science. Asha Coleman presented her evaluation of social infrastructure in Chicago, while Zhihan Weng humorously yet rigorously analyzed whether there are "Too Many Bus Stops in Midtown and Downtown Manhattan!" Other impactful works included Ryan Hatch’s spatial analysis of Pennsylvania school districts before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and Yifan Guo’s research on China’s aging population. The full range of projects appears below.
Several of the program’s instructional faculty came to support the graduates, including Emily Rauscher, Kevin Mwenda, and Derick Baum, alongside program leaders Margot Jackson, Zhenchao Qian, and Carrie Spearin. David Lindstrom, the program's founder and now Dean of the Graduate School, joined the celebration as well.
After the poster session, the group enjoyed a celebratory lunch upstairs before transitioning into the formal ceremony. Margot Jackson, Director of the PSTC, opened the remarks by praising the cohort's dedication and acknowledging their remarkable resilience in the aftermath of the tragic campus shooting in December. MSDA Director Zhenchao Qian then emphasized the creativity of the cohort's real-world problem-solving, while Associate Director Carrie Spearin concluded by urging the graduates to stay curious as they step into their careers.
Each graduate was warmly acknowledged and presented with a small gift from the program. With their departmental celebration complete, the students were sent off with applause, ready to officially accept their degrees the next day, May 23, on the Main Green.
MSDA Graduate Projects:
Asha Coleman: Evaluating Proximity and Quality of Social Infrastructure in Chicago, IL
Camila Cuéllar: Urban Bogotá Food Security Tool: Interactive 2SFCA Model of Community Kitchen Capacity and Neighborhood Demand
Camila Gonzalez Vasquez: Of Parks and Parking: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Urban Green Space Access in Miami, Florida
Yifan Guo: Population Aging, Migration, and the Old-Age Dependency Ratio in China (2010–2050)
Ryan Hatch: A Spatial Analysis of Pennsylvania School Districts Before and After COVID
Ziyu Huang: Green for Whom? Inequalities in Urban Greenspace Accessibility in Glasgow City Based on the Accessible Greenspace Standards
Yushan Liu: China’s Compressed Demographic Transition, 1995–2024: From Demographic Dividend to Demographic Burden
Yun Tang: Green Gentrification in Boston: Do Parks Contribute to Neighborhood Change?
Yiting Wang: Tracing the “Coffee Corridors”: The Endogenous Logic of Spatial Agglomeration in Shanghai’s Specialty Coffee Industry
Shuai Wei: Temporary or Persistent? Annual County-Level Migration Responses to Federally Declared Hurricanes in the U.S.
Zhihan Weng: Too Many Bus Stops in Midtown and Downtown Manhattan!
Yeyang Xie: Why Crude Death Rates Can Be Misleading: An Age Standardization and Decomposition of Mortality Differences Between China and the United States in 2019
Linxi Yang: Unlocking YES Participation Potential
Pengfei Yu: Tourism Pressure and Spatial Accessibility: The Impact of Airbnb on Grocery Store Accessibility in Boston
Teng Zhang: Intergenerational Transmission and Stratified Returns to Education: Evidence from the U.S. General Social Survey 2024
Jiaying Zhao: Green Space Accessibility and Mental Health
Weichenyang Zhou: Spatial Redistribution of Population and Economic Activity in the New York Metropolitan Area