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UID:269@escience.washington.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250514T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250514T172000
DTSTAMP:20250428T172123Z
URL:https://escience.washington.edu/events/uw-data-science-seminar-thiyagh
 essan-poongundranar/
SUMMARY:UW Data Science Seminar: Thiyaghessan Poongundranar
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for a UW Data Science Seminar featuring Thiyaghe
 ssan Poongundranar from the Urban Institute on  Wednesday\, May 14th from 
 4:30 to 5:20 p.m. PT. The seminar will be held in Electrical and Computer 
 Engineering Building 125 – Campus Map.\n"From Research to Impact: Data 
 Science Approaches in Public Policy"\n\nAbstract:  The growing demand for 
 US social sector data has created unique challenges for data scientists. T
 his talk explores how the Urban Institute's National Center for Charitable
  Statistics transformed its infrastructure to meet policy needs through co
 st-effective solutions that bridge research and practical applications. Fi
 rst\, I will share user-centric design principles that help researchers de
 velop public-facing dashboards and APIs that truly address stakeholder nee
 ds\, with a focus on practical approaches for translating complex analysis
  into accessible\, actionable\noutputs. Next\, I will demonstrate our tech
 nical architecture that optimizes performance while minimizing costs. I’
 ll cover how serverless architectures\, WebAssembly implementations\, Duck
 DB backend databases\, and flexible R Shiny interfaces create an environme
 nt where Python and R tooling seamlessly coexist—delivering scalable sol
 utions without excessive infrastructure investment. Finally\, I&#39\;ll pr
 esent strategies that keep research teams focused on impact while maintain
 ing methodological rigor. I will walk through our approach to balancing th
 e demands of translational research with open science principles\, ensurin
 g both practical relevance and scientific reproducibility.\n\n  Biography:
   Thiyaghessan Poongundranar is a data scientist at the Urban Institute. H
 e works with Urban’s Technology and Data Science team and Center on Nonp
 rofits and Philanthropy to provide analysis and support for research invol
 ving Urban’s National Center for Charitable Statistics. Poongundranar ha
 s applied research experience in machine learning\, deep learning\, and na
 tural language processing in the domains of political economy\, public fin
 ance\, and high-performance computing. Poongundranar holds a bachelor’s 
 degree in political science from the National University of Singapore and 
 a master’s degree in computational social science from the University of
  Chicago.\n\nThe 2024-2025 seminars will be held in person\, and are free 
 and open to the public.
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