At the University of Chicago’s Development Innovation Lab (DIL), undergraduate researchers contribute to studies of public health, education and economic development in low- and middle-income countries.
Working with faculty and policy experts, students analyze data, assess outcomes and support fieldwork that informs government and community interventions around the world.
Led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Kremer, the lab uses economic research and randomized controlled trials to evaluate large-scale development programs in partnership with governments, nonprofits and community organizations.
“Undergraduates at the Lab contribute to research that helps inform policymakers and community organizations in multiple countries," said Kremer. “That understanding has already had an impact on the work of international NGOs, and continues to inform global institutions like the World Bank.”
Undergraduate students work on those problems alongside faculty, field experts and international partners, forming what DIL director of policy Terrina Govender described as a “student research body” that supports the day-to-day work of the lab. Students run calculations, assist with coding, conduct literature reviews, prepare policy summaries and help design field studies.
“We’re doing research to inform policy,” said Govender. “We work on problems that have the potential to scale to millions, or hundreds of millions, of people.”
Students also engage with Kremer and collaborate with a large team of researchers across policy areas, giving them insight into how partnerships are developed and how projects move from design to implementation.
“They get to see the full value chain,” said Govender. “We’re not doing research in a vacuum.”
From research to real-world impact
The lab’s commitment to real-world impact is what inspired rising third-year economics major Himyar Kamaka to join the lab last fall.
Growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia, Kamaka observed the kinds of public health, education and infrastructure challenges that many rapidly developing countries face. He developed an early interest in development economics—which he wrote about in his UChicago application essay—and a belief that research-informed policy could make a difference in lives and communities.
“The fact that there’s something that could be done makes me excited,” Kamaka said. “I could make a little contribution to developing countries, like where I grew up.”
Since joining the DIL, Kamaka has worked on projects related to water infrastructure and public health in multiple countries. One of his first assignments involved reviewing survey and GPS data from a water chlorination intervention in Uganda and Malawi, where a partner organization was evaluating the effectiveness of chlorine dispensers installed in rural villages.
More recently, Kamaka contributed to a project analyzing the distribution of water infrastructure systems across India. Working with publicly available government data, he analyzed records covering roughly 600,000 villages and 1.1 million water infrastructure schemes. The project aimed to create what Kamaka described as “a clear picture” of village-level water infrastructure across India, including where service gaps remain and how different types of systems are distributed.
Preparing the data for analysis required learning new technical tools. After realizing that spreadsheets would not be practical for a project of that size, Kamaka taught himself SQLite, a database management tool, to organize and structure the datasets. The process took weeks, but Kamaka described the experience enthusiastically: “It was really cool.”
Like Kamaka, rising fourth-year economics major Marcus Kuo was drawn to DIL by the opportunity to connect technical research with real-world policy questions.
Kuo, who grew up in the Bay Area, developed a passion for economics in high school. He came to UChicago knowing that he wanted to do research and joined DIL during his second year.
“DIL stood out to me,” Kuo said, because the lab’s work can improve people’s lives in “a scalable, cost-effective way.”
Like Kamaka, Kuo first worked on the chlorination project in Uganda and Malawi, supporting fieldwork for a safe water program in roughly 200 villages. He helped design survey instruments, coordinate with a survey firm and review incoming data from the field each day.
Those daily field checks made the impact of his work tangible. When he and his colleagues identified issues in data submitted by field enumerators, the survey partners in Uganda and Malawi made quick corrections to the data collection process. Collaborating with colleagues thousands of miles away—and seeing the results of that collaboration reflected in the data each day—was formative for Kuo.
“I was like, wow, I’m impacting the quality of the data being checked in real time,” he said.
Last fall, Kuo transitioned from water projects to an air quality study in Colombian schools, focusing on increasing the use of classroom air filters. He’s hoping the work broadens his experience.
“I wanted to try something outside of water and learn more about a different context,” Kuo said. “Air quality in schools—that was something new that I could do.”
His current project focuses on increasing the use of classroom air filters in Colombian schools. Kuo said the work involves not only statistical analysis, but also collaborative brainstorming about intervention design, proposal development and identifying what additional data researchers may need to collect.
The experience has also shaped how he thinks about research as a method of learning. Rather than learning development economics primarily through coursework, Kuo said the best training has come from learning along active researchers and global partners.
“I feel like the best way to learn about it is just to go onto the project, read the background literature and try things out,” he said. “You learn as you go.”
A rotational model for undergraduate research
Behind these projects is a lab structure designed to give undergraduates sustained, varied experience across multiple research portfolios.
DIL operates as a large, multi-project lab. Students can rank their interest in available assignments, and lab leadership will match them with teams based on project needs, technical requirements and students’ skills and interests.
Students are also contributors to a broader research ecosystem and vibrant community within the lab. Kuo said he was initially surprised by how collaborative the lab felt, especially given its size. Most DIL project teams, he said, are relatively small. Undergraduate researchers are encouraged to contribute ideas during discussions about research design and implementation.
The collaborative structure of the lab shapes both the research process and students’ experiences within it.
“A lot happens at lunchtime,” Govender joked, describing regular group lunches where students and researchers talk about their projects, their coursework and their lives.
Those lunchtime conversations often evolve into discussions about graduate school, policy careers and the different ways students might apply research skills after leaving the University.
“I think of it as mentorship,” Govender said, “but I also think of it as illuminating careers they might not know, or paths they might not be super familiar with.”
Part of that mentorship involves helping students think about how research findings are communicated outside academic settings. Govender said she often works with students on presenting technical analyses in ways that are accessible to policymakers and nontechnical audiences.
“I work with them when they produce analysis to make it relevant and comprehensible for a policy audience,” she said.
—This article was originally published on the UChicago College website.
