Keck Institute Fellow Kevin Ding Develops App to Help Fellow Students Navigate Los Angeles

Kevin Ding, a Seaver College sophomore, was recently named a Keck Institute for Data Science Fellow after developing a ridesharing app, Ding Carpool, that helps Pepperdine University students share the cost of commuting in the greater Los Angeles area while also benefiting the environment. Each year the Keck Institute fellowship provides funding for Seaver College students who wish to pursue advanced research in data science during the summer. This summer funding through the fellowship will allow Ding to further develop the app, analyze its usage using AI, and optimize its experience for travelers—in particular, students.

Traffic in Los Angeles

Ding Carpool provides Pepperdine students with an affordable ride-sharing option to navigate Los Angeles highways. Using a Pepperdine email address, consumers log into the app and post the time they are leaving University grounds and their final destination. The app then matches users based on the corresponding criteria. This allows Pepperdine students to pair up and split the cost of a single Uber or Lyft ride with a peer as opposed to paying the bill alone, an incentive that cuts the total cost of a trip off campus in half. 

Ding introduced his cost-effective creation prior to Pepperdine’s spring break. The app gained significant attention during the break and recorded 180 student downloads and significant use for travel back and forth from campus. In total, student users saved $500 by making use of the sophomore’s creative idea. Now, throughout the summer, Ding will work alongside faculty mentors at the Keck Institute for Data Science to study potential ways it could benefit the environment. 

Launched in 2021 with a $10 million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation, the Keck Institute for Data Science is an interdisciplinary hub that furthers the research capabilities of students and faculty members. Through this resource, Pepperdine University researchers are actively studying how the field of data science and new AI technologies can be used to improve people’s daily lives.

“The essence of data science’s mission is to link disparate fields that we don’t think of as working together,” says Fabien Scalzo, director of the Keck Institute for Data Science and associate professor of computer science at Seaver College. “The Keck Institute for Data Science connects different disciplines so that the end result is more than what would’ve been accomplished individually. With that, I think entrepreneurship is of critical importance. Kevin’s initiative is a really good example of how to make things happen—of a student using these collaborative resources to grow an idea.”

Ding first developed the idea for Ding Carpool in March of 2024. A native of Las Vegas, he realized he was spending more money commuting to and from the airport than he was on plane tickets.  Since then, he and his team have worked from 10 to 20 hours a week on developing the app’s algorithms and its look and feel on whiteboards in Payson Library. However, at a certain point in the creative process, the Seaver student recognized a need for a faculty mentor to help him navigate the computer programming aspects of his creation.

“I wanted to see if I could find any computer science mentors,” says Ding. “I visited all the com sci professors' office hours to speak with them about my idea, and Dr. Scalzo really supported me and encouraged the concept,” 

With Scalzo’s mentorship, Ding launched the app and is now thinking of ways to expand its reach. He aims to grow Ding Carpool’s Pepperdine user pool to 500 students. Afterward, he plans on introducing the idea to other local campuses, including the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. 

As a result of expanding the app’s use, Ding believes his app could prove beneficial for the environment. With fewer students ordering individual rides, the carbon footprint of these various campuses could be noticeably reduced. During the 2025 summer, he, Scalzo, and others at the Keck Institute for Data Science will study how the app could mitigate the effects of climate change as well as save people money.
 
“Kevin is very independent,” says Scalzo. “He was able to develop an idea into an app that is actually working. It addresses a very big issue in our campus community.”