Dr. Tricia Wang

Singularity Expert: Data Science

Dr. Tricia Wang is a tech ethnographer who is driven by the belief that technology must serve humanity. Whether she is conducting ethnographic research in China, advising Fortune 500 businesses, or advocating for ethical privacy laws, she always strives to surface the need to understand human behaviors. Tricia’s work spans the corporate, academic, and nonprofit worlds and she divides her considerable energy among them. She co-founded Sudden Compass—a consulting firm that helps companies achieve the unexpected by applying panoramic thinking to make better decisions, more accurate predictions of the future, and stronger data operations. To this end, she advocates for the integration of Big Data with what she calls “Thick Data”, which she describes in her TED talk. Tricia’s company has advised companies of all sizes and types, including Spotify, GE, Procter & Gamble, and Kickstarter, always steering them toward ideas and actions that put people first. In addition to her enterprise work, Tricia has spent decades researching youth culture, social media, and Chinese Internet culture. She began her career as a documentary filmmaker at NASA, an HIV/AIDS activist, and an educator specializing in culturally responsive pedagogy, and has continued to wear many hats over the course of her career. She pours her energy into projects that support and connect humans that strengthen communities, including building after-school technology and arts programs for low-income youth at New York City public schools and the Queens Museum of Arts. Tricia co-founded the first national hip-hop education initiative, H2Ed, which is now housed at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education. Tricia has held affiliate positions at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Data & Society, and New York University’s ITP Program. She is a Fulbright Fellow and National Science Foundation Fellow. Her work has been featured in Quartz, The New Yorker, Buzzfeed, Techcrunch, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, Slate, Wired, The Guardian and Fast Company. She splits her time between Brooklyn, NY, Lima, Peru, and Oakland, California. She is the proud owner of her pitbull-mix pup, @ellethedog_ who is famous for balancing stuff on her head. Her life philosophy is that you have to go to the edge to discover the center. For more information, go to her website www.triciawang.com or follow her on twitter or instagram @triciawang.Her most recent work during the COVID-19 pandemic through Last Mile, reflects the insights she gained from her 10+ years of living and researching in China and her time at Magpie Kingdom, a consultancy she co-founded that advised companies on leveraging cultural innovation in China. She is also a part of the California COVID-19 data taskforce. She splits her time between Brooklyn, NY, Lima, Peru, and Oakland, California. She is the proud owner of her pitbull-mix pup, @ellethedog_ who is famous for balancing stuff on her head. Her life philosophy is that you have to go to the edge to discover the center. For more information, go to her website www.triciawang.com or follow her on twitter or instagram @triciawang.