Welcome to the PEARS lab, focusing on the political economy of agriculture and rural societies at UC-Merced.

The lab is a a social science lab focusing on the comparative study of agriculture and rural development, specializing in natural experiments, machine learning (especially deep learning and computer vision) and geospatial methods. Lab instrumentation includes a deep learning computer equipped with multiple GPUs, to which lab associates have access.

For graduate and undergraduate students, in addition to co-authorship and paid RA opportunities, lab membership comes with access to  and periodic trainings. The lab is directed by Aditya Dasgupta and Tesalia Rizzo.