Divij Sinha

I'm a PhD student in Political Economy at the University of Chicago, and a data scientist and policy analyst. I'm broadly interested in studying India and the Global South, and am currently working on elections in India.

I hold an MS in Computational Analysis and Public Policy from the University of Chicago (2024, Siebel Scholar), and a B.E. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS Pilani, Goa with a minor in Politics, Economics, and Philosophy. Prior to Chicago, I was a Research Associate at the Urban Informatics Lab at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements.

Work

Research & Projects [github]

Mansueto Institute — Local Data Journalism Fellowship

Project managed the Local Data Journalism Fellowship (2024–2026), leading teams of research assistants on urban-focused data journalism projects.

Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Lab — Election Survey Analysis

Metrics and analysis for large-scale US primary election surveys, piloting new voting methods and candidate slates with Prof. Moon Duchin at Cornell University (Summer 2024).

Mansueto Institute — CTA StopWatch

Dashboard tracking daily CTA bus metrics from ChiHackNight's Ghost Buses dataset. [site] [repo] [Tribune story]

Mansueto Institute — Cook County Property Tax

Spatial features for the Cook County Assessor's housing valuation model; automated property tax explainers and fairness assessment reports. [repo] [example 1] [example 2] [example 3]

Mansueto Institute — Localised Segregation Study

Collaborated with Cornell University on a project using cell-phone pings to study localised segregation patterns.

Mansueto Institute — Chicago Neighborhood Project

Web mapping tool for survey data collection on Chicago neighborhood boundaries. [survey website] [WBEZ Reset] [Block Club Chicago]

IIHS — Urban Informal Sector Policy Study

Report for the Chief Minister's Rajasthan Economic Transformation Advisory Council, Government of Rajasthan. [PDF]

IIHS — Karnataka Child Health Analysis

Analysis of discrepancies in child health indicators across Karnataka. [webinar] [press release]

IIHS — Demographic Research

National district-to-district migration estimates; population projections to 2051 using Bayesian hierarchical models; confidential COVID-19 district risk analysis for the Government of India (2020).

Publications

ILO/IIHS — Domestic Labour Studies (2023)

Three publications on paid and unpaid domestic work in urban India. [Reproducing a Household] [Deficits in Decent Work] [Employer Practices]

IBPSA/FARU — Thermal Comfort Research (2022)

Two papers on predicting operative temperature and adaptive thermal comfort controls using machine learning. [BSO 2022] [FARU 2022]

Teaching

University of Illinois, Chicago — Adjunct Instructor

PA 470, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the Public Sector (Spring 2025).

Harris School of Public Policy — Teaching Assistant (2022–2024)

Data and Programming for Public Policy; Mathematics for CS and Data Analysis; Software Engineering for Civic Tech.

IIHS — Urban Fellows Programme

Designed and delivered courses on data and public data sources for the Urban Fellows Programme and ad-hoc sessions for bureaucrats and policy professionals.

Contact

Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about anything! Especially if you are from an underrepresented minority from India/South Asia, I would love to help out in way I can - from help with research to writing grad school applications, and preparing for CAT/GRE/BITSAT etc.