Data Science Updates is the University of Wisconsin-Madison's resource for news, training, events, and professional opportunities in data science, brought to you by the Data Science Institute, powered by American Family Insurance, and the Data Science Hub.
June 10, 2026
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UW–Madison has designated 2026 as the “Year of AI Readiness and Competency” in a coordinated, campus-wide effort to ensure that students, faculty, and staff are prepared to use artificial intelligence thoughtfully, responsibly, and in service to the Wisconsin Idea. The effort builds on the investments made as part of RISE-AI, which has strengthened faculty hiring, research capacity, and foundational infrastructure.
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Join the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery in celebrating the retirement of Data Science Hub Director Michael Ferris on June 25, 3-5pm in the Discovery Building DeLuca Forum. Through his service, leadership, and contributions to interdisciplinary research, Michael has made a lasting impact on WID and the broader research community. A short program will begin at 3:30 p.m., with light refreshments to follow. RSVPs are requested: go.wisc.edu/ferris. If you have questions, please reach out to Laura Red Eagle: lredeagle@wisc.edu.
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NVIDIA’s Academic Grant Program is seeking proposals from full-time faculty members at accredited academic institutions who are using NVIDIA technology to advance work in three interest areas: Simulation and Modeling; AI Training and Model Development; and AI Inference, Agents, and Systems Software. Submit your research proposals by June 30. For more information, visit the FAQs. A Q&A session will be held on campus on Friday, June 12; details are in the Seminars & Events section of this newsletter.
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CAMPUS WORKSHOPS
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June 15-18; 9 a.m.-1 p.m; Discovery Building. Covering basic concepts and tools (unix, git, python), including program design, version control, data management, and task automation; this workshop will help researchers complete their work in less time / with less pain through teaching basic research computing skills. Throughout this hands-on workshop, participants will be encouraged apply what they have learned to their own research problems. Registration closes soon! Register today to secure your spot.
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June 17, 2-4 p.m.; 1145 Discovery Building. Sci-Prov workshops are designed for graduate students, post-docs, staff, and faculty in STEM-related fields who want to sharpen their ability to communicate effectively. These free sessions provide a lively, low-stakes space to build confidence in handling the unexpected and the ability to pivot one’s communication. This Message Crafting workshop focuses on refining and delivering messages without jargon, varying timelengths, enhancing stories with emotion, and pivoting when needed. Space is limited; register today to secure your spot!
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Have questions about anything data science-related? Come see the Data Science Hub facilitators at Coding Meetup on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30-4:30 p.m. CT. To join Coding Meetup, join data-science-hubgroup.slack.com.
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June 12; 2-3 p.m; Hybrid, Morgridge Hall 5530 or Microsoft Teams. Join DSI Director Kyle Cranmer and Chief Technology Officer Todd Shechter for a Q&A session on the NVIDIA Academic Grant Program. This session will focus on clarifying what is known about this funding opportunity (details can be found at the beginning of this newsletter) and providing support for creating strong proposals.
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June 9-12; Zoom. HTC26 brings together researchers, campuses, science collaborations, facilitators, administrators, government representatives, and professionals interested in high throughput computing. A wide variety of topics will be discussed this year. For more details, please review the full event schedule. If you are interested in participating, please be sure to complete the registration for remote attendance.
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June 15, 2 p.m.; Zoom. Join this seminar on Orchestra-ICU: A Multi-Agent Platform for Augmenting Diagnostic Reasoning During ICU Rounds with Dr. Majid Afshar, associate professor at the UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
July 13, 11 a.m.; Zoom. Join this seminar on AI for accelerating medical discovery with Dr. Hoifung Poon, general manager of Real-World Evidence at Microsoft Research, who will talk about the intersection of AI and patient treatment.
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June 18, 12-1 p.m; Zoom. Modern computational research increasingly relies on notebooks, AI-generated code, and rapidly evolving software ecosystems. While these tools accelerate discovery, they also introduce new reproducibility challenges. In this University of Chicago webinar, Professor Tanu Malik will discuss emerging reproducibility challenges in today’s computational stack and what they mean for the future of scientific research. Register now.
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June 24-25; Purdue University. The Midwest Machine Learning Symposium (MMLS) brings together machine learning researchers from across the region for stimulating discussions, new collaborations, and a chance to showcase the strength of the Midwest ML community. Registration closes June 14.
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DATA VISUALIZATION OF THE WEEK
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In the early 2000s, Australia primarily utilized coal and gas as electricity sources. As seen in the graphic below, during the 2000s and early 2010s, the use of coal for electricity decreased while the use of gas for electricity increased – growth from solar and wind during these years was relatively minimal. However, within the last five years, Australia has leveraged both solar and wind as electricity sources. The high adoption of these sources has led to a decline in gas for electricity generation, causing solar to climb above gas and become Australia's second-largest electricity source. Interested in learning more? Check out how electricity sources are changing in other countries!
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Reposted from Our World in Data: Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems.
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Data Science Updates is a collaborative effort of the Data Science Institute and Data Science Hub. This newsletter was originally created by the Data Science Hub and published as Hub Updates.
Use our submission form to send us your news, events, opportunities and data visualizations for future issues.
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