Introduction

March is Women’s History Month, there are a number of celebrations of women in data science and statistics happening this month. This extra credit assignment will engage you with a few such celebrations and ongoing initiatives for increasing diversity in data science.

Tasks

For this extra credit assignment you’re asked to:

  1. Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference:

The Global Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference aims to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and support women in the field. This annual one-day technical conference provides an opportunity to hear about the latest data science related research and applications in a broad set of domains, All genders are invited to participate in the conference, which features exclusively female speakers. (Source: http://www.widsconference.org/about2018.html)

This year’s conference is on Monday, March 5, 2018.

Watch one (or more if you like, but at least one) talk on the Women in Data Science Conference live stream. The schedule can be found here. Note that times listed on the schedule are PST.

You should watch one of the keynote addresses, techinical vision talks, or the career panel. Then, summarize what you heard in one short paragraph (roughly 5-10 sentences).

  1. American Statistical Association’s Celebration Women in Statistics and Data Science initiative:

Read two of the women’s bios (except for mine) on AMSTAT News here and list their names. Feel free to mention something from the bios that you thought was interesting/striking/unexpected. Note: A few of these women are Duke alums or faculty!

  1. R-Ladies:

Find out about the mission of R Ladies and locate the R-Ladies chapter that is closest to your hometown. Note: There is one here in RTP!

Submission

Print out your responses and bring to class on Monday, March 19th. Or if you’re done earlier, you can turn them in earlier as well (in class or in office hours). Submissions must be turned in to Dr. Cetinkaya-Rundel (not to TAs, just to make sure they don’t get lost).

FAQ

  • I am very busy on Monday, March 5 and will not be able to watch the live stream. What can I do?

First, note that the times listed are in PST so there is a good chance you’re not in class during the later talks. However, if you absolutely cannot spare ~20 minutes to watch the livestream of a talk that day, the videos will be posted after the event. Unfortunately I don’t know when they will be posted, and whether that day will be before the due date for this assignment. In the chance that the 2018 WiDS videos are not posted before the due date, you can pick a talk from the 2017 WiDS conference and watch/write about it. Videos of 2017 WiDS talks can be found here.

  • What if I’m not interested in finding out about women in data science?

Well, that would make me sad. But this is an optional extra credit assignment. Not completing it will not negatively affect your grade. Before you make up your mind, I invite you to review the schedule for the WiDS conference carefully. I imagine at least one of the talks might be of interest to you. And the other two parts of the assignment should be very quick to complete.