By Robin Brooks

Their schools, goals, specialties, countries and backgrounds vary. So what compels 16 college students to work full-time for a summer analyzing data?

The eScience Institute‘s Data Science for Social Good program allows fellows the opportunity to develop new skills, learn from one another, and receive guidance from top-notch scientists on their project goals.

This year’s fellows are seeking to create, “a positive impact in the world,” (Thomas Dinsley), and, “work on meaningful projects that combine data and urbanism within a social-minded context,” (Rachael Dottle).

Within the confines of one of four projects, the fellows seek to develop strategies for improving urban issues such as unsafe food product consumption and transit inefficiency. “I am very excited to work on this project,” writes fellow Kaicheng Tan, who is working on a project to improve pedestrian wayfinding through crowdsourcing.

You can read more about all the fellows and their projects on their blog, which includes their personal statements and real-time updates of their project work.