{"id":336698,"date":"2026-05-28T23:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/336698\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:52:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:52:51","slug":"raffy-xie-honored-with-2026-departmental-citation-in-data-science-undergraduate-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/336698\/","title":{"rendered":"Raffy Xie honored with 2026 Departmental Citation in Data Science Undergraduate Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Yuzi (Raffy) Xie first arrived at UC Berkeley as a chemistry major, he was eager to use his scientific knowledge to make a real environmental impact. Then he discovered data science, and with it, the possibility to connect chemical processes to systems-level patterns across entire regions.<\/p>\n

Xie\u2019s academic achievement at the intersection of these fields has earned him the honor of receiving the 2026 UC Berkeley Departmental Citation<\/a> \u2013 the highest departmental honor for a single graduating senior \u2013 in both Data Science Undergraduate Studies and Chemistry.<\/p>\n

Xie\u2019s journey took shape during his sophomore year, when he joined Professor Ronald C. Cohen\u2019s research group<\/a> working with the Berkeley Environmental Air-quality & CO2 Network (BEACO2N)<\/a>, a large-scale system that collects air quality data across the Bay Area every few seconds. He found that nearly everyone in the group relied on data science methods to turn the enormous datasets generated by the network into a coherent picture of air quality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Yuzi (Raffy) Xie, B.A. ’26, receiving the departmental citation award from Professor Ani Adhikari at the 2026 Data Science Undergraduate Studies student awards reception. Photo \/ Kira Chong \/ Data Science Undergraduate Studies<\/p>\n

As he progressed through the data science major, Xie built the computational and statistical foundation needed to work at this larger scale. Courses in optimization, statistical inference, stochastic processes, and machine learning gave him the tools to model complex environmental systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe major doesn\u2019t have a chemistry domain emphasis<\/a>,\u201d Xie reflected, \u201cbut that exposed me to the math emphasis. I learned about stochastic processes and optimization, which actually became fundamental in my research.\u201d<\/p>\n

That interdisciplinary training became especially important in Xie\u2019s undergraduate research on low-cost methane sensing, where the central challenge was not only chemical accuracy, but also scalability and access. Traditional methane analyzers can cost roughly $75,000 each, making deployment difficult for many communities and researchers. Because of this, Xie investigated whether sensors costing closer to $20 could still be calibrated to reliably measure methane in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Rather than treating the sensor as a black box, Xie developed a calibration framework that combined chemical modeling with data cleaning and optimization methods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not only about improving predictive performance,\u201d said Xie. \u201cIt\u2019s also about building a model grounded in scientific understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

This work also reinforced Xie\u2019s growing interest in environmental justice. Communities near refineries, landfills and wastewater treatment facilities may face higher exposure to pollutants while lacking access to expensive monitoring technologies. Low-cost sensors could help make methane emissions more visible and measurable across these sites, supporting earlier detection and mitigation of environmental harm.<\/p>\n

That same commitment to accessibility appears in Xie\u2019s outreach work through Bay Area Scientists Inspiring Students (BASIS)<\/a>, where he visits K\u201312 classrooms to lead hands-on lessons about atmospheric science and cloud formations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of see making sensors low-cost and doing outreach in a parallel way,\u201d Xie said. \u201cOn one side, you\u2019re making sensors accessible for everyone. On the other side, you\u2019re making science accessible for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Berkeley, Xie found strong support from mentors, graduate students, friends and family members who helped shape his growth as a researcher. He recalled arriving at his first group meeting as a shy sophomore surrounded by PhD students and faculty researchers, only to be greeted by a welcoming community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey never said my questions were stupid,\u201d Xie said. \u201cThey just explained things and encouraged me to ask more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Xie working on a methane sensor setup in the lab. Photo provided by Raffy Xie.<\/p>\n

This fall, Xie will continue his interdisciplinary journey as a PhD student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, where he plans to combine atmospheric chemistry, machine learning and large-scale computational analysis to study global greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.<\/p>\n

For Xie, the future of environmental science lies in exactly the kind of scale-shifting work Berkeley encouraged him to pursue.<\/p>\n

\u201cData science is a really powerful tool,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can help so many different fields, especially scientific research, but also societal problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Yuzi (Raffy) Xie first arrived at UC Berkeley as a chemistry major, he was eager to use…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-336698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}