Emily Aiken is a postdoctoral scholar at Carnegie Mellon University Africa. Starting in January 2026, Emily will be an assistant professor at UC San Diego, jointly appointed in the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute. Emily's research interests are in machine learning and development economics, with a focus on analysing large digital traces to inform social protection policy. Emily received her PhD from the UC Berkeley School of Information, where she was advised by Joshua Blumenstock. Emily also holds an MS (UC Berkeley) and BA (Harvard) in computer science.
