Umar Maniku
Program on Security Institutions and Violent Instability
My research has me examining discrepancies or large differences in reported security institutions troop numbers for different countries from year-to-year – whether there are problems with the coding or if they were caused by events occurring in that nation for that year. By cross-checking different published reports, military expenditure data, and news sources, a thorough picture can be drawn of the events occurring within a nation over a number of years. This is all part of ensuring the database of troop numbers that the research project is currently preparing is accurate.
Message To Sponsor
Doing research this summer was an incredibly rewarding experience and I am grateful to Professor Mattes and Katie Beall for giving me this opportunity, and the donor who is making this possible. My research has shaped my career goals both in academia and beyond. I really enjoyed this experience - it felt fulfilling and really opened my eyes as to how research is used in social science contexts. I plan to continue conducting research, hopefully with this current project that I have worked on.
Major: Economics and Data Science
Mentor: Michaela Mattes
Sponsor: DeBenedetti Fund