2026 Research Assistants
Arjun Sundaram
About Arjun
Arjun Sundaram is a senior pursuing a double major in Economics and Mathematics. His interests lie in econometrics, game theory, quantitative finance, and ML. At GLOB~S, Arjun is researching how natural disasters affect innovation. He combines information on patents and natural disasters to track innovation over time across locations. He generates indicators to identify when new technologies appear, or big leaps in innovation occur. Additionally, he tests how innovation patterns change before and after disasters.
Skillset: Python, R, STATA, Fortran
Atharva Ghatnekar
About Atharva
Atharva is an undergraduate at Boston University double majoring in Computer Science and Economics, with interests at the intersection of financial markets and technology. His previous projects include studying the adoption of insurance-based instruments for climate risk, developing a media-based bilateral sentiment index, and analyzing innovation patterns in disaster-affected regions. He is currently focused on data ingestion and collection, as well as projects on climate-risk disaster analysis and management.
Skillset: Python, STATA, SQL, R, Java, C, Machine Learning
Daehee Hwang
About Daehee
Daehee Hwang is a Masters Student at Boston University studying Data Science with Batchelor’s in Business Administration at CSULB. Professionally, Daehee works at GEICO as the Property Damage Team Supervisor where he leads a team of auditors on his data team. Driving KPIs at GEICO’s partner vendors by utilizing data science toolsets.
At GLOB-S, Daehee is currently working under Professor Ballesteros guidance on their Crisis Flow Research – A full feature AI model that predicts a firm’s risk in the given market for the geographical area they are interested in. Daehee is currently planning to build the project end-to-end, including backend API for data ingestion/storage, ML for training and deployment, and frontend development for the consumer facing website.
Skillset: Python, SQL, Java, JavaScript, Swift, C++, Power BI, Tableau, TensorFlow, SwiftUI, React, SwiftUI, Unity, PyTorch, Azure, AWS, ArcGIS
Kevin Villeda De Leon
About Kevin
Kevin Villeda is a junior studying data science specializing in business analytics and machine learning applications. He is passionate about tackling complex problems using data and translating those results into actionable business decisions. Previously, at GLOB~S, he has analyzed large datasets for quality assurance and downstream consumption. Currently he serves in the development team of Crisis Flow where he is developing risk and priority metrics to guide strategic decision making.
Skillset: Python (Machine Learning), SQL, Docker
Khoa Cao
About Khoa
Khoa is a sophomore studying Computer Science with a minor in Economics. He is passionate about the intersection of Machine Learning, Software Engineering, and Business Strategy. At GLOB~S, Khoa is developing an API that enables users to query bilateral sentiment data between countries in real time. Additionally, he is implementing a data visualization pipeline that translates the lab’s analytical findings into interactive and intuitive dashboards. His work emphasizes user-centered design, security, and the seamless integration of machine learning outputs into practical applications.
Skillset: Python, STATA
Srijit Banerjee
About Srijit
Srijit Banerjee is a senior at Boston University pursuing a dual degree in Data Science and Economics. His interests lie in quantitative modeling, econometrics, and algorithmic decision systems. At GLOB~S, He is studying how entrepreneurship and risk preferences respond to exogenous shocks, as well as how geopolitical tensions shape international innovation networks. His analysis focuses on how shifts in international relations influence cross-border collaboration and knowledge flows, using patent and media-based data to trace changes in global innovation patterns.
Skillset: Python, STATA, SQL, R, Java, React, Rust, Tableau
Timothy Nguyen
About Timothy
Timothy Nguyen is a junior majoring in Mathematics and Economics with a minor in Business. His research interests focus on macroeconomics, monetary policy, microeconomics, and industrial organization. He is researching the macroeconomic effects of large currency devaluations by using panel data and using local projections in Stata to trace how GDP, inflation, and employment respond over time. Previously, he analyzed Tobin’s Q and corporate investment using fixed effects and IV methods, and built SQL/Python pipelines on patent litigation data to study case outcomes and duration.
At GLOB~S, he supports the Global Trends in Firm Resilience project by building disaster-exposure measures from geolocated subsidiary and disaster data, then cleaning and merging datasets, creating variables, building Python pipelines, running regressions in Stata, conducting literature reviews, and producing publication-ready tables/figures with short research memos documenting methods, assumptions, and key results.
Skillset: SQL, STATA, Python, R, Power BI, Tableau, Regression Analysis, Excel, LaTex
Yi Li
About Yi
Yi Li is a senior at Boston University pursuing a double major in Economics and Philosophy. He aims to utilize and improve his knowledge through analyzing the effects of exogenous shocks and developing corresponding strategies on a global scale. While Yi does not have a strong background in data and programming, he strives to improve these skills along the way to contribute to the ongoing research. At GLOB~S, Yi is responsible for collecting data and conducting literature reviews on climate-related disasters and climate-change risks to understand the evolution of firm performance and strategy in response to the risks. Yi also maintains the lab’s website to ensure that progresses within the lab are updated in a timely manner.
Skillset: Python, STATA, Tableau, R