The lab brings together computer science expertise (data science and AI) with social science perspectives (primarily sociology, economics, and political science). This interdisciplinary foundation enables the lab to both develop new methods that address key challenges in development research and contribute to substantive research on human development.
A core part of the lab’s work is the use of satellite imagery and large-scale data sources to map and understand long-term development trajectories over time and across regions. The lab is recreating historical and geographical human-development trajectories from satellite images spanning 1984 to 2022, enabling poverty measurement at unprecedented temporal and spatial granularity. These approaches support new insights into topics such as poverty and prosperity, sustainability, conflict and instability, and the impacts of aid and policy interventions.
In addition to method development and applied research, the lab also explores emerging AI approaches—such as AI search agent swarms—for large-scale discovery and knowledge generation. Overall, the AI and Global Development Lab contributes to a new generation of data-driven development research by linking technological innovation with strong social science theory and policy relevance.
Visit our external website for complete information about our lab and our research.
