Lab: Students

Cecil-Francis Brenninkmeijer is the lab manager at the Data Innovation Lab and a predoctoral research assistant at Berkeley Haas School of Business. He graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor’s in Economics and worked as an investment analyst at Vanguard. He is planning to pursue graduate studies in economics and finance.

Tim Sels is a Postdoc at the Data Innovation Lab and holds a PhD in Economics/Business Management. He is a former Fellow of the Fox Program at Yale University, where he conducted empirical analyses to uncover the effects of political polarization on individual and team performance. Tim has also worked as a Portfolio Manager for real estate investments at BVV.

Saqib Mumtaz is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Management of Organizations (Macro) track at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. He is interested in innovation, entrepreneurship, and science of science. His current research is investigating impediments facing the diffusion of academic research to industrial applications.

Srikanth Janjirala is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in Management of Organizations (Macro track) at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. His research interests include innovation management, design innovation, and science of science. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta and a Bachelor’s in Engineering design from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

Kris Gulati is a fourth-year Economics PhD Student at The University of California of Merced interested in the economics, politics, and science of science. He is an Emergent Ventures Fellow.

Eunice Mercado is a fellow at the Data Innovation Lab. She is a former Open & Equitable Program Manager at the Open Research Funders Group, former Civic Science Fellow (2021-2023), and former Deputy Director for Science and Technology Policy at the Mexican Council for Science and Technology. She has worked in the public and private sectors to help government agencies and philanthropic funders develop open research policies and academic institutions to align their incentives to this end.

Stella Jia is a senior majoring in Data Science at UC Berkeley. She is interested in taking a data-driven approach to explore innovation, decision science, and generative AI. In her free time, she enjoys running, reading, and helping others create organizational spaces on Notion.

Arul Murugan is a Research Associate at the Data Innovation Lab. His interest lies in the intersection of Technology and People. He has worked in an early-stage AI startup for two years, after completing his Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani - Goa, India. He is planning to pursue graduate studies in Information Science.

Sushanti Kerani is a Master's student at UC Berkeley, studying Information Management and Systems at the School of Information. She previously worked as a Software Developer in AI and NLP for startups in India before moving to Berkeley. She's also an active open-source contributor and her interests lie in GenAI, products, and the socioeconomic implications of consuming today's technology. 

Yingrong Mao is a Master's student in computational social science at the University of Chicago. She is interested in collective intelligence and complex systems. Using simulations and other computational techniques, such as natural language processing and statistical modeling, to mine big data about human interactions and behavior, she tries to conduct different kinds of theory-driven investigations. She is planning to pursue graduate studies in macro organizational behaviors and computational social science.

Siwei Ran is a data analyst at Technology area. He holds a master of science in business analytics from UCD and a bachelor of science in Statistics from UBC. His interest lies in the intersection of data science and management. In his free time, he enjoys fitness and coffee.

Nancy Ma is a senior majoring in Statistics and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. She is interested in innovation, LLMs, and the application of data analytics and machine learning in finance. Nancy plans to pursue graduate studies in Data Science or FinTech. In her free time, she loves cats, emoticons, anime, and cooking

Mahir Shah is a junior majoring in Computer Science and Data Science at UC Berkeley. He's super excited to be at the intersection of technology and business! He is interested in the application of AI in the fields of fintech, edtech, and venture capital. At the Data Innovation Lab, he plans to explore the evolving role of data in shaping entrepreneurship!

Aoife Dwan is a junior majoring in Economics and minoring in Data Science at UC Berkeley. She is interested in the intersection of business, technology, and people. In her free time she enjoys hanging out with friends and family, playing IM Soccer, and coaching gymnastics.

Kenny is a sophomore majoring in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research (IEOR) and Data Science at UC Berkeley. His research interests span the intersection of Data Analytics and Operations Research, with a focus on applied AI & ML models, revenue management, fintech, and optimization algorithms. Beyond his academic pursuits, Kenny enjoys teaching, traveling, playing tennis, and singing with his acapella group on campus.