Data@Carolina Welcomes New Data Scientist
The Data@Carolina initiative is pleased to welcome Dr. Feng “Bill” Shi, Data Scientist, to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In this new position, Dr. Shi lends his expertise to faculty engaged in data-intensive research that requires data science approaches such as natural language processing, machine learning, conceptual modelling, statistical analysis, predictive modelling, and hypothesis testing. Dr. Shi offers the computer science, mathematical, and predictive modelling skills to mash up distinctive datasets and build algorithms necessary to ask and answer novel research questions.
Dr. Shi is interested in how nature and society work through the lens of digital information, i.e., Big Data. Trained as a mathematician, his research has focused on the development of mathematical models and tools for the representation, analysis, and inference of real-word systems, with applications in areas such as nanomaterials, financial markets, public opinion, and innovation and knowledge production. His main research areas lie at the intersection of math, statistics, and social science, and include complex networks, computational social science, and the science of science.
Dr. Shi received his M.S. in Statistics and Ph.D. in Applied Math from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and spent three years at the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago as a postdoctoral scholar. Dr. Shi will be based at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science.
Contact Dr. Shi at bill10@email.unc.edu.