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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 American Family Insurance Data Science Institute and the Data Science Hub.
February 8, 2023
 
Light bulb logo, Information Insights: Shaping Futures with Data and Computing, Research Bazaar, February 22-23, Discovery Building, UW-Madison

Research Bazaar Sponsors

The Research Bazaar is a community-building event at UW-Madison for researchers, data scientists, entrepreneurs, and community members, including students. This event would not be possible without the support of our generous sponsors. We are excited to partner with campus departments and industry for the 2023 Research Bazaar: UW-Madison Libraries, UW-Madison Information Technology, WARF, the School of Computer, Data, & Information Sciences, the Department of Computer Sciences, the iSchool, the Department of Statistics, the School of Medicine and Public Health, the American Family Insurance Data Science Institute, Epic, and American Family Insurance. You can learn more about our sponsors here.

Register for Intermediate Software Development with Python

March 13-17, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Room 1106 McArdle Building, The Data Science Hub will be hosting a Carpentries workshop on Intermediate Research Software Development in Python. This course aims to teach a core set of established, intermediate-level software development skills and best practices for working as part of a team in a research environment using Python as an example programming language. The core set of skills that will be taught are not a comprehensive set of all-encompassing skills, but a selective set of tried-and-tested collaborative development skills that forms a firm foundation for continuing on participants' learning journey. To register and view the workshop schedule, visit the workshop website.

Cécile Ané Helps Researchers Transform Data Into Meaning

Cécile Ané earned her Ph.D. in mathematics, but she shifted her focus to statistics and evolutionary biology because she wanted to answer questions the world is asking, such as how species will adapt and survive climate change. At UW-Madison, she works with biologists across campus, helping them work with vast amounts of data and fill in gaps in understanding. These collaborations, in turn, inform her fundamental research in statistics.

Cécile is Professor in the Department of Statistics and Department of Botany and a member of the Institute for Foundations of Data Science. You can learn more about her work in Faces of Data Science, which is a growing collection of profiles features faculty, staff, and students across campus who are part of UW Madison's data science community. Faces of Data Science is created, written and curated by the Data Science Institute.
 

WORKSHOPS AND TRAININGS

Sound Solutions for Sustainable Science Workshops

Scientists need to communicate their research, but effective communication is rarely taught in science courses. Like any other skill, communicating science is best learned and refined through practice, feedback and critique, and more practice. The three workshops in the Communicating Scientific Knowledge series introduce participants to three key types of formal scientific communication: writing abstracts, creating and delivering posters, and creating and giving oral presentations. Participating in one or more of these intensive, hands-on workshops will provide you with practical and effective pointers and tools that you can use to develop your skills in communicating the exciting results of your research.

February 16, Creating Scientific Posters
March 16, Crafting Oral Presentations

For more information and to register, view the Sound Solutions workshop webpage.
 
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.
 
 

SEMINARS AND EVENTS

American Family Funding Initiative Town Hall + Opportunities for Innovation: Data Science and Insurance

February 15, 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., DeLuca Forum, Discovery Building, This hybrid meeting will provide an overview of the newly updated topics of interest to American Family, tips for navigating the submission process, and resources available for applicants’ data and computing needs. New this year: American Family will present how they use data science in the insurance industry. The meeting will be recorded and shared online.

This meeting will be in-person with a remote option. Lunch will be provided for in-person participants. The event is free of cost, but registration is required for both in-person and remote participation. Register by February 8th, 3:00 p.m. to guarantee your lunch. To learn more about this event and to register, visit the event webpage.

EDI Webinar: An update from the EDI Units Working Group

February 21, 1:00 p.m., Conveying the units of a measurement accurately and understandably is an essential component of generating reproducible data. The EDI Units working group is examining available unit technologies and discussing ways these can be incorporated into EML metadata. In this webinar, they will present progress working with QUDT and UCUM, such as analyzing current datasets and mapping their units to these systems. They will also present potential paths forward for further discussion. For more information about the webinar, visit the Environmental Data Initiative website.

dotData Exclusive Google Cloud Event

February 9, 6:00 p.m., remote, Join the data science club as one of MadData's sponsors, Google Cloud, hosts an exclusive online presentation. Join dotData's slack for more info and the link to join when the event gets closer.

Call for Presenters: Spatial Lighting Talks 2023

Due February 17, The Center for Spatial Studies announces the 12th annual Spatial Lightning Talks, which will be held online on March 16, 2023 at 10:00 am PDT. The Spatial Lightning Talks showcase intrepid presenters who have just three minutes to deliver their idea, story, or message. Topics may be wide ranging as long as space—geographic or otherwise—figures prominently. Applicants who have an intriguing idea, emerging research topic, unusual side project or a thought-provoking elevator pitch to share that features a spatial perspective are encouraged to apply. Submit an idea through this Google Form no later than February 17. Confirmation of presenters will be emailed by February 22.

SILO Seminar Series

Wednesdays, 12:30 p.m., SILO is about breaking down the systems, information, leaning, and optimization of research created by academic department boundaries. Recent advances in information science are allowing scientists and researchers to sense, process and share data in ways and scales previously impossible. These developments have the potential to benefit work happening in a wide range of disciplines. SILO’s purpose is to help realize such potential by providing the time and space for researchers to present and interact to find common threads. Visit the SILO webpage for information about their upcoming talks.

Check out more data science seminars and events at the data science @ uw website.

 

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Love Data Week 2023

February 13-17, The theme this year is Data: Agent of Change. Love Data Week is about inspiring the community to use data to bring about changes that matter. This year, the hosts hope to focus on helping new and seasoned data users find data training and other resources that can help move the needle on the issues they care about. Hosted by ICPSR, a series of online and in-person events will be taking place to support #LoveData23. To view the event schedule, visit the Love Data Week webpage.

Join a Computational Instructional Community

UW-Madison's Carpentries Community hosts numerous workshops year-round to help students, staff, and faculty learn essential computational skills including programming, database management, data visualization, version control, machine learning, and more

The Carpentries is seeking new members to bring additional diversity and expertise into its instructional community. Among other benefits, members have opportunities to advance their technical and teaching skills by attending computational workshops and participating in an optional instructor training program. Join the google group if interested in learning more!

Wisconsin AI Summit

February 9, 12:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Join the Center for Technology Commercialization for the Wisconsin AI Summit as they learn from state, federal and military AI/ML experts about emerging needs for smart data products. Participants will learn about emerging innovation needs, funding opportunities and key resources available for access to develop smart data solutions. Companies and early-stage teams will have a chance for one-on-one consultation from leaders at Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute, Connected Systems Institute, Kairos and federal agencies including HHS, NSF and DOD. For more information and to register, visit the Wisconsin AI Summit webpage.
 

JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES

STUDENT

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Due February 28, The Comparative Genetics Laboratory in the School of Veterinary Medicine is seeking a team-oriented and self-motivated Laboratory Student Hourly. This position is ideal for an undergraduate student with a strong interest in pursuing a career in veterinary medicine, genetics, biomechanics or bioinformatics. For more information and to apply, visit the Research Assistant job posting.

Geoscience Mapping Intern - Undergraduate Student

Due February 28, The Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey (WGNHS) conducts earth-science surveys, field studies, and research. WGNHS is looking for a summer geological mapping intern who will spend the summer working with WGNHS staff to create a geological map. No prior geologic mapping experience necessary. For more information and to apply visiting the Mapping Intern job posting.

PROFESSIONAL

Research Cyberinfrastructure Specialist

Due February 24, Join the Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC) as a Research Cyberinfrastructure Specialist (RCS) to build software and services that help push the frontiers of knowledge across a wide swath of research domains. As an RCS, the work will include tasks such as developing data processing frameworks for the xDD project; building, testing, and releasing production-ready software for an integrated software stack; troubleshooting issues in a distributed computing environment; and integrating services into CHTC's computational infrastructure to improve the system's performance and ease of use. To apply, view the Research Cyberinfrastructure Specialist job posting.

American Family Funding Initiative

Due March 3, The American Family Funding Initiative offers grants up to $100K to stimulate and support cutting-edge research in the rapidly growing field of data science. American Family Insurance has partnered with UW–Madison through the American Family Insurance Data Science Institute to provide this research funding opportunity. UW–Madison faculty and staff with permanent PI status are eligible to apply. Learn more here.
 

DATA VISUALIZATION OF THE WEEK

Reposted from the Data Science Community Newsletter, an Academic Data Science Alliance project

2016 Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program data visualized by Rebecca Dell, Industry Program Director at ClimateWorks Foundation

Data Science Updates is a collaborative effort of the Data Science Institute and Data Science Hub.

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