Hi, I'm Oren. Welcome!
Data Scientist AI Engineer Automation Specialist, Researcher, Lifelong Learner, Stats Nerd, Cellist, Programmer.
I'm a Data Scientist at the University of Chicago Crime and Education Labs. I seek to use data to help people, mostly through researching gun violence and educational inequality.
On the side, I help companies, nonprofits, and school districts build automations and improve workflows, using the Google Suite and various AI tools.
In brief
Before 2020, I couldn't have told you what "data science" was. I just knew I liked numbers, I liked problem solving, and I liked programming.
During my gap year (2020–21) and throughout college, I held seven data-focused internships. At each one, I used the same technical toolkit to solve problems, and each of those solutions was helping people in one way or another.
I loved working with data, and I realized that I could improve the world while doing it.
Today, I use data to try to reduce gun violence and to make sure education is equitable for everyone.
Research & freelance
I was initially motivated by a simple question. Decades of research show that having a gun in your home makes your home less safe. But the majority of Americans think the opposite. Why?
Now, I have broadened my research to other questions where the empirical data doesn't match public perception. What causes homicide in the U.S.? What can we do to stop it?
Read about my gun violence researchAt the University of Chicago Education Lab, I work with a team of machine learning researchers trying to shift the paradigm from aggregate metrics to personalized evaluation.
Read about my education researchSmall teams often spend hours each week on manual tasks, without even realizing they can be automated. I help companies reclaim that time so their teams can focus on more valuable work!
What I build and how it worksUpcoming
I'm co-presenting with Joel Rabin (Inform 2 Inspire) at the California Educational Research Association annual conference. We built an AI chatbot for California's literacy initiatives that lets non-technical users explore the massive troves of public California literacy data by asking simple questions in plain English. To see a demo or ask about it, write to me or to Joel.
Session details (opens in a new tab)I'd love to hear about it.