Hi! I’m Evelyn, an Economics major at NCCU and a Research Assistant on our team. My role in the team involves collecting and analyzing data.
I was previously the president of the Google Developer Student Club at NCCU, where I participated in two major projects that really sharpened my practical skills.
Every day on this team offers new learning opportunities, and I love being able to apply what I learn in real-world scenarios.
My name is Yang, and I am currently pursuing an MA in Political Science at Tartu University in Estonia. Ex-ante, I earned my undergraduate degree in American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest, where I cultivated an interdisciplinary understanding of history, politics, and culture.
My research interests centre on authoritarianism, democratization, quantitative methods and the mechanisms of authoritarian resilience, with a particular focus on China, Hong Kong and their global implications. I am especially interested in applying organizational theory to explore the institutional design of power transitions among Chinese leaders. This includes analyzing how the 1982 constitution reflected Deng Xiaoping’s vision of intra-party constraints in terms of the term limits and separation of party and state apparatus and examining whether Xi Jinping’s “imperial” rule has disrupted the institutionalization of leadership transitions at the apex of Chinese politics. Besides that, I am working on my MA thesis regarding how China diffuses authoritarian rule through economic investment and aid to African and other Global-South countries.
I am thrilled to join this project as a co-author specializing in minority politics in Taiwan. My work aims to investigate the interplay of political representation, ethnic identity, and social mobility, contributing to a deeper understanding of these critical issues. At the current stage, I am seeking doctoral positions in the EU and Hong Kong. I look forward to collaborating with the team and making meaningful contributions to our shared research goals.
Bonjour à tous! I’m Dilbar Isakova, currently living and studying in Paris as I’m doing my master studies(M2) at CentraleSupélec. I’m an Erasmus Mundus scholar in Big Data Management and Analytics, but my journey into data science truly began when I met Dr. Jacob Reidhead. I had a great experience of working with Dr. Reidhead at KIMEP University as his research and teaching assistant. During that time, I dove into data science fundamentals such as doing data entry, cleaning, and visualization in R, and even taking on advanced tasks like statistical analysis, NLP, and social network analysis with Python.
Now, as a master’s student in big data, I’m building on those skills through exciting projects like facial verification using Autoencoders and ResNet18 at the CentraleSupeléc’s Lab and going to publish own research paper soon. Dr. Reidhead’s passion and guidance sparked my own interest for data science, and his mentorship gave me the confidence to pursue a career where I can turn data into useful solutions. So, I think, I surely can say that working with Dr. Reidhead was life-changing 🙂
Hi! I’m Alysia, and I’m majoring in Political Science at NCCU. My fields of interest are Politics and Economics, so I also minor in Economics.
As a research assistant on the team, I am involved in analyzing data. Through the research program, Organization of Power, I expect to learn basic skills in data analysis and gain knowledge about the exercise of power. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to work in the lab!
Hi! I am Emma (Yen Hsi), a Political Science student at NCCU and a Research Assistant in Dr. Reidhead’s lab. My research interests revolve around gender and politics. During my time at NCCU, I’ve taken several courses related to comparative politics and gender history, which have shaped my current focus.
As part of the team, I am responsible for reorganizing and analyzing data to support our research efforts. This role enables me to both apply and sharpen my analytical skills.
I appreciate the chance to join this team, and I am excited to work alongside this talented group and apply what I’ve learned to further explore the intersection of gender and political careers.
Hi everyone! I’m Mukhamejan. I’m currently a master’s student majoring in International Relations as part of the Erasmus program IMCEERES. Since January 2022, I’ve been responsible for collecting and operationalizing data in Russian, Kazakh, and English. In July 2023, Jacob and I attended the annual research forum at Tsinghua University, where we presented our project, “Dispossessing Nazarbayev.” This work was later nominated as the best research paper.
I’m generally interested in informal networks and neopatrimonialism in politics. Specifically, I’m curious about calculating the capital of elite networks, as this provides an opportunity to predict how political and economic dynamics will behave in certain circumstances.
Aside from my interests in social science, I enjoy reading about philosophy and endocrinology.
Hi! I’m Alan, and I majored in Finance at Xiamen University in Malaysia. As a Research Assistant on our team, I focus on collecting and analyzing data on startup ecosystems in Central Asia.
Working with data has always been a passion of mine, and I find satisfaction in organizing complex information into comprehensive datasets. I have the pleasure of working closely with Dr. Reidhead, whose expertise and guidance have been crucial to improving my skills. Additionally, collaborating with Jacob has been a fantastic experience, and I’ve learned so much from him along the way.
I’m thrilled to be part of this project, which not only aligns with my professional interests but also offers me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of the dynamic startup ecosystems .