Jolina (she/her) is a third-year traditional student at UCLA studying Statistics and Data Science and minoring in Data Science Engineering. She is interested in how data, computational tools, and human-centered research work together to communicate insights that support informed, data-driven decision-making. In her free time, Jolina enjoys baking, crocheting, and exploring different café spots in the Los Angeles area!
As the project lead, Jolina kept track of all documentation, took meeting notes, and communicated with the subject-matter expert. In addition, she supported the data team by preprocessing data, creating visualizations, and providing analyses using the Google Health COVID-19 Open Data Repository and the OXGRT dataset.
Freya (she/her) is a Statistics major with a minor in Data Science Engineering at UCLA. She is interested in how data and design can work together to explain real-world trends, especially in tourism and global mobility.
As the data visualization specialist, Freya created the charts used throughout the project and helped clean and align the UNWTO and TTSA datasets to ensure the visuals were accurate and consistent. Her work focused on making complex data understandable and visually clear.
In her spare time, she enjoys music production, snowboarding, and traveling. Her favorite travel destination so far is Sydney, Australia, where she loves the mix of beaches and vibrant city life.
Madison (she/her) is a fourth-year Statistics and Data Science major at UCLA.
As a data visualization specialist, she worked with large-scale, heterogeneous tourism and raw datasets for China and the U.S. More specifically, she worked with the OXGRT and TTSA datasets to create different visualizations that would best highlight the stringency index patterns, as well as the impact that COVID-19 had on recovery patterns for different sectors in the tourism industry.
In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding, poker, and surfing. Her dream travel destination is Beijing, China!
Kit (she/her) is a third-year UCLA student majoring in Film & Television and pursuing a Digital Humanities minor. Rooted in her love for storytelling, she hopes to explore the intricacies of human stories through mixed media and interdisciplinary studies, like what Digital Humanities has to offer!
She is the editor for this project, so she spends time reading insightful articles and drawing connections from various data. In her free time, Kit likes to watch movies, dance, and explore LA.
Edin (he/him) is a third-year traditional student at UCLA studying Cognitive Science. He is interested in exploring how humans interact with technology and information. In his free time, Edin enjoys doing photography, documenting eats on Beli, and traveling around the world.
As the web developer, Edin played a key role in bringing our project to life by editing the website layout, troubleshooting technical issues, and ensuring the site delivered a clear, cohesive experience for all users.
Mandy (she/her) is a second-year traditional student at UCLA studying Cognitive Science with a minor in Digital Humanities. She is vastly interested in the intersection between technology and healthcare and hopes to enter the field of product research post-graduation. In her spare time, Mandy enjoys cooking and baking, playing video games, and trying new cafes to document on Beli.
As the web designer, Mandy was in charge of working with HTML, CSS, and other tools to create the layout of the website.
Acknowledgements
Our project would not have been possible without the guidance of our professor, Dr. Wendy Kurtz, and our TA, Pietro Santachiara. Their support during office hours, discussion sections, and lectures strengthened our confidence in data visualization and deepened our understanding of the datasets we worked with. Their enthusiasm for digital humanities truly inspired us, and we are grateful for the energy and dedication they brought to the course. We deeply appreciate their contributions to making this quarter a meaningful experience at UCLA.
We also acknowledge the use of AI-assisted tools, including ChatGPT, which helped improve readability and clarify our analysis for readers without domain knowledge. All final interpretations and decisions were made by our team.
Lastly, we would like to recognize and thank each member of our team. Our collaboration was strong, our communication consistent, and our division of responsibilities highly effective. Every person contributed to the success of this project, and we are proud of how well we worked together as a unified group. We wish everyone the best in their future academic and personal pursuits!