Leanne Chan

Hey! I am Leanne, a graduate of the Master of Urban Spatial Analytics program. My interest lies in using data science for public policy. Over the 9-month MUSA program, I have picked-up important programming tools for data visualization, machine learning, and web development in R, Python, and JavaScript. The best part about the MUSA program is that it not only equips its students with these technical skills, but also with the ability to think about public policy, and how these tools can improve current policies. I appreciated the emphasis in MUSA on communicating a technical idea to a non-technical audience, a very useful skill to have in the workplace! My capstone project was a fire-hydrant inspection prioritization model, which I worked on with Ran Xin and Li Ziqun. We used machine learning methods to predict the fire risk in different parts of Philadelphia, then built a scoring model that included the predicted fire risk, type of land use, demographic data, and hydrant quality. The semester long project culminated in an application that allows the user to build their own prioritization model and displays the results on a map.