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Suraj R Nair

I am a PhD candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information. I am advised by Joshua Blumenstock, and a fellow at the Global Policy Lab. I am supported by a Berkeley Fellowship, and a Digital Transformation of Development Fellowship (2022-23).

My research interests lie at the intersection of development economics and machine learning, with a focus on the use of novel data and methods to study pressing issues in global development.

Before coming to UC Berkeley, I was a research manager at IFMR LEAD and a research assistant for Profs. Rohini Pande and Erica Field. I completed my MA in Development Studies from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where I was advised by Prof. Mathangi Krishnamurthy.

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Research/ Publications
* indicates equal contribution
Welfare Impacts of Digital Credit: A Randomized Evaluation in Nigeria
Daniel Björkegren, Joshua E. Blumenstock, Omowunmi Folajimi-Senjobi, Jacqueline Mauro, Suraj R. Nair (alphabetical order)

Revise and resubmit, Economic Development and Cultural Change
CEGA Webinar/Selected for presentation at NEUDC, November 2021

PontTuset
Mapping Opium Poppy Cultivation: Socioeconomic Insights from Satellite Imagery
Arogya Koirala*, Suraj R. Nair*, and Xiao Hui Tai
ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies, 2024
COMPASS (Poster Track), 2021
KDD Humanitarian Mapping Workship (Case Study), 2021
PontTuset
Sand Mining Watch: Leveraging Earth Observation Foundation Models to Inform Sustainable Development
Ando Shah, Suraj R. Nair, Tom Böhnel, Joshua E. Blumenstock.

NeurIPS Workshop On Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning (2023)

Mapping Construction Grade Sand: Stepping Stones Towards Sustainable Development
Ando Shah* and Suraj R. Nair*

KDD Fragile Earth Workshop 2023
ACM Compass 2023

PontTuset
In Progress
Climate Change and Migration
with Guanghua Chi, Nicholas Depsky, Joshua E. Blumenstock and Solomon Hsiang
PontTuset
Civil Conflict and Seasonal Labor Flows in Afghanistan
with Xiao Hui Tai, Shikhar Mehra and Joshua E. Blumenstock
In submission
PontTuset
Welfare Sensitive Machine Learning
with Simón Ramirez Amaya, Daniel Björkegren and Joshua E. Blumenstock
Presentation at Lab for Inclusive Financial Technology (LIFT)
Workshop paper accepted at PML4DC @ ICLR 2023
PontTuset
Can Cash Transfers Create Sustained Financial Inclusion?
with Matthew Olckers and Joshua E. Blumenstock
Accepted for presentation at MeasureDev2022, and PacDev 2023
PontTuset
Service/ Mentoring

COMPASS 2022: Program Committee
I School Applicant Feedback Program
PhD Student Representative: UC Berkeley School of Information, 2020 - 2021
Berkeley Undergraduate Research Assistant Program: 2020-present

Code

CoefPlot: Visualize regression results in coefficient plots with tables.

design based on Jon Barron's website || last updated: Feb 19, 2023