Picture: Qixuan Yang

Intensive seminars and fruitful discussions: An academic year abroad at Yale University

Qixuan Yang has the opportunity to study two semesters in Yale via the very competitive Baden-Württemberg state programme. He is currently in his third semester in the MSc Social and Economic Data Science programme and holds a B.A. degree in Politics and Public Administration. Further, he holds a scholarship from Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung that funds his stay

Qixuan Yang talks about his Yale experience:

"Currently, I am an Exchange Scholar at the Department of Political Science at Yale University. I have been taking part in a variety of academic activities here: Weekly workshops with senior and young researchers around the globe, intensive seminars with strong research design focus at the graduate level, and fruitful discussions with colleagues with diverse backgrounds etc. In particular, I am functioning as a consultant at StatLab in Yale University Library, a digital scholarship service provided to the whole Yale Community in terms of data science application.

Here, I have been enjoying the growth in academic maturity as well as the communication with an interdisciplinary research community. The SEDS program back at the University of Konstanz helped me foster the theoretical fundament in data science and also develop interdisciplinary research interest. Specifically, this program does not only train students with applied skills but encourages them to understand the underlying logics cautiously. I am grateful for the training in this intensive yet flexible program, which facilitates my pursuit of cutting-edge research in quantitative political science."