Hi, I'm Yuqi Cheng.
I am an M.S Data student at Columbia Journalism School, expected to graduate in Aug 2024. I am interested in the Sci & Tech beat, building tools, or introducing AI for local newsrooms. I have interned at Scientific American and South Metropolis Daily in China, also freelanced in opinion writing at People's Daily and etc. I received the Fan-Jingyi Journalism Award in 2022 as a physics undergraduate student at Tsinghua University. Before that I was trying to figure out ultrafast laser spectroscopy and 2D materials.
Projects at Columbia Journalism School
NYC firework complaints surged in 2024 Lunar New Year
Fireworks are prohibited in New York City. I looked into the 311 firework complaint data and found that the complaint around 2024 Lunar New Year has a sudden jump, while the number of firework complaints on July 4 - the only unrivaled peak every year - has a decreasing trend. The complaints were mostly around Sunset Park in Brooklyn, a community where many Chinese immigrants live.
Honey Crisp Kumquat $1 each: Where to Find the New Luxurious Fruit?
A new kind of kumquat swipes the fruit market in Flushing this year. Unlike the regular types, they are egg-sized, honey-sweet, and of course, expensive. I went to a supermarket to copy the fruit prices, compare its sweetness with other fruits, and show how Rong'an County, the origin of this kumquat in China, handle the different varieties.
Missing Girls in Unlawful 3rd Child: Census in China Shows Astonishing Gender Selection
China's latest census shows that there are unnaturally more boys than girls being born, especially the third child in a family, which was illegal at that time when data was collected. Using 2020 census data, I plotted and mapped the gender ratio of newborns with statistical model. Two graphs are connected with tooltip and highlighting.
Auto scrape the daily shelter census from DHS in NYC
The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) in NYC provides daily report of shelter census data, but their website only shows the latest PDF. In order to store historical data and see the trend, this project auto-scrapes the daily report, along with data dating back to 2016 from the Wayback machine. The data is in CSV format in Github, and is open for every journalists interested.
An interactive map shows recent official appointment of provinces in China
The interactive map shows 1k newest Chinese provincial leader appointments by Dec 13, 2023. The colors indicate how frequent a province changes its officials. Full list can be seen by clicking on each province. Filter the groups to see which provinces have the same person wearing two hats among the four highest leader positions. Also see which provinces have their chairman of the National People's Congress vacant.
Does crime increase around migrant shelters?
Crime around shelters is by no means a new concern raised by shelter opponents. In the context of the migrant crisis in New York, the NYPD crime data is examined around two shelters: the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, and the Sunset Park Recreation Center in Brooklyn. Even as residents raised concerns at local public safety meetings, the number shows no significant change in crime rates two blocks away.
Different media attention to Oppenheimer and Fukushima - all about nuclear science
Oppenheimer is a nuclear-related film released in last summer. A month later, however, another real-life nuclear-related incident did not seem to get as much attention in the U.S. media. On August 24, 2023, the Japanese government started discharging treated Fukushima nuclear wastewater into the ocean. Media analysis shows strong contrast between the American media and the media in East Asia - they all relatively neglected the other.
Reporting on a 20-year-old cold case in Queens County, NYC
Mel Grimes has almost given up hope. Twenty-one years ago, he says, police all but promised him that they were about to make an arrest in the case of his ex-girlfriend’s killing. Grimes says he remembers detectives telling him that there would be answers by the time Leah Tagliaferri was buried. But two decades later, the case remains cold. And Grimes thinks he knows why.