Michael Willen

Michael Willen is a senior at Yale University majoring in statistics and data science. He is an Eagle Scout and has experience in Python, SQL, R, and ArcGIS. He’s passionate about the ways in which the world connects and how we can employ data to improve the daily lives of the people who inhabit it, and interested in data-driven and geospatial approaches to urban planning, transportation, and mobility.

In summer 2025, he worked as a Data Science Intern at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which owns and operates rail, buses, subways, bridges, and tunnels in the New York City metropolitan area — the largest public transportation network in the United States and North America.

In summer 2024, he worked as a Student Researcher at the Center of Urban Science and Progress at New York University under Marcel Moran and Prof. Debra Laefer. There, he worked on a project documenting the street-to-platform accessibility of New York’s non-ADA-compliant subway stations. A manuscript is currently being drafted for publication in the near future.

Currently, he is taking courses in urban spatial analytics, geographic information systems (GIS), and machine learning. He is also working on a senior project studying the spread of highway noise in New Haven, related socioeconomic and health impacts, and the effectiveness of noise abatement methods that can be implemented by local governments when the state lacks the resources to do so.

You can get in contact with Michael via michael.willen@yale.edu or via LinkedIn.