Rising star in data science

Olukunle Owolabi, a second-year PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been named a Rising Star in Data Science by the Center for Data and Computing (CDAC) at the University of Chicago. The honor celebrates exceptional data scientists and accelerates their careers through intensive workshops and research talks. The two day workshop was held remotely on January 11-12, 2021.

Olukunle was invited to present his research talk titled “Power Outage Risk Interconnection: Relationship with Social and Environmental Critical Risk Indicators.” The talk investigated interconnections between diverse components in a system and how those interconnections can provide insights on the health and risk states of a system. His research focused on identifying dynamic relationships and trends in climate resilience and preparedness in Massachusetts. Olukunle proposed synthesizing datasets on power outages, population density, and environmental factors, such as wind speed and precipitation, to identify meaningful trends in the data.

Olukunle works with Assistant Professor Deborah Sunter and an interdisciplinary team of data and domain scientists at Tufts, where he applies data science and machine learning techniques to energy, climate, financial, and ecological systems. His career as a researcher has led him across three continents in pursuit of degrees in petroleum engineering, sustainable energy systems, and mechanical engineering. He hopes to use his diverse experiences and training to improve the experiences of people, communities, and organizations.