The older Kevin Guo, the direction of computer science and younger Erin Hovendon, studying mechanical engineering, are located on broadly divergent paths in myth. But their life is crossed in one dimension: they share the understanding that their political sciences and juvenile public policy provide key perspectives for research and future careers.
In the case of Guo, the relationship between computer science and politics appeared in his work at Mit’s Cheocction Data and Science Lab. “When I started, I was looking for a place where you can learn to code and study data,” reflects. “But I found this fascinating intersection at which technical skills can directly shape democratic processes.”
Hovendon focuses on balanced climate change methods. Currently, he participates in the MultiSemester research project at Mit’s Environmental Dynamics Lab (Endlab) by developing monitoring technology in removing sea carbon dioxide (MCDR).
He believes that the success of his research today and the future depends on understanding his impact on society. Her academic track in politics is the basis. “When you develop a new technology, you must also focus on how it will be used,” he says. “This means learning the rules required for their scale and about the best ways to convey the value of what you are working on public.”
Raising the stem and politics
In both Hovendon and Guo, interdisciplinary examination turns out to be a valuable platform for tangibly solving real challenges.
Guo came to the myth of Andover, Massachusetts, the son of parents specializing in semiconductors and computer science. While mathematics and computer science were a natural song for him, Guo was also interested in geopolitics. He enrolled in class 17.40 (American foreign policy). “It was my first commitment to the political science myth and I liked it very much, because it concerned historical episodes that I wanted to learn more about World War II, Korean War and Vietnam,” says Guo.
He continued the class about American military history and the uprising of Asia, where he enrolled in graduates and American military officers. “I liked to participate in a course with people who had unusual observations,” notes Guo. “I also liked that these humanities were small seminars and focused on individual students.”
From coding to elections
It was in class 17.835 (machine learning and data learning in politics) that Guo first realized that he could directly combine his IT knowledge and mathematics with humanities. “They gave us large sets of political science data to analyze, which was a pretty cool application of the skills that I learned in my direction,” he says.
Guo jumped from this class to a three -year research project at the Electoral Laboratory and Science Lab. “The most difficult part is the collection of data on which I worked on the election audit project, which checked if there were significant differences between the original number of votes and the number of audit in all states at the district level,” says Guo. “We had to scrape data, raw PDF files and create a unified set of data, standardized to our format that we could publish.”
Data analysis skills he acquired in the laboratory are useful in a professional sphere, in which he began training: investment finance.
“The flow of work is very similar: clean the data to see what you want, analyze it to see if I can find the edge and then write the code to implement it,” he says. “The biggest difference between finances and research in the laboratory is that the development cycle is much faster in which you want to act on the data set in a few days, not weeks or months.”
Engineering environmental solutions
Hovendon, from North Carolina with deep love for external, came to the myth, committed himself to “doing something related to sustainable development and possessing direct application in the world around me,” he says.
Initially, she went to environmental engineering, “but then I realized that almost every major can accept a different approach to this topic,” he says. “So it ended at switching to mechanical engineering, because I really like the practical aspects of the field.”
Parallel to its design and production, as well as courses of mechanics and materials, Hovendon also immersed in the energy and environmental policy class. One unforgettable class of anthropology, 21a.404 (life through climate change), asked students to consider whether technological or political solutions can be fully effective to combat climate change. “It was useful to use holistic ways to discover interpersonal relationships with the environment,” says Hovendon.
Hovendon transfers this well -rounded perspective to his tests in endlab in the field of sea coal capture and fluid dynamics. It helps to develop MCDR verification methods in the pilot sewage treatment plant in California. The facility aims to remove 100 tons of carbon dioxide directly from the ocean by increasing natural processes. Hovendon hopes to design profitable monitoring systems to demonstrate the effectiveness of this modern technology. If it is increased, MCDR may allow oceans to store a much larger amount of atmospheric coal, helping to frosty the planet.
But Hovendon is well aware that innovations cannot be on the basis of technical effectiveness with great influence.
“You will have people who think that you should not try to repeat or disturb the natural system, and if you place one of these objects somewhere in water, you use public spaces and resources,” he says. “You can’t come up with any technology, but especially for any climate -related technology, without prior encouraging society to buy.”
It resembles class 17.30J (creation of public policy), which emphasized the importance of both economic and social analysis for successful adoption of highly influential provisions, such as the Act on inexpensive care.
“I think that a breakthrough in science and engineering should be assessed not only through their technological efficiency, but through the success of their implementation for general social benefits,” he says. “Understanding aspects of politics is of key importance to improving the availability of scientific progress.”
Outside the dome
Guo will soon set off on a career as a quantitative financial trader and considers his origin of political sciences necessary for his success. While his knowledge about cleaning and analyzing data will appear in the game, he believes that other skills also: “understanding foreign policy, considering how US policy affects other places, in fact very important in finance,” he explains. “Macroeconomic changes and politics generally affect trade variability and markets, so it is very important to understand what is happening.”
With one year, Hovendon considers the postgraduate school of mechanical engineering, perhaps designing renewable energy technologies. “I really hope I’m working on something that I’m really passionate about, which has a wider goal,” he says. “As for politics and technology, I also hope that at least some government research and development will continue to go to climate work, because I am sure that there will be urgent need.”