Participants from Astrohackweek 2017.

Welcome from Director Magdalena Balazinska

The first cohort of the Masters in Data Science students and Data Science for Social Good participants from the UW and the University of British Columbia
From left, the first cohort of the Masters in Data Science students and 2017 Data Science for Social Good participants from the UW and the University of British Columbia

Dear eScience team and community,

A photo of Magda Balazinska
Magda Balazinska

The new school year is in full gear and the eScience Institute is once again the place on campus where researchers come to learn about the latest data science tools and methods and to network with their interdisciplinary collaborators.

I would first like to thank our team and community for their exceptional work last year that has led to multiple significant accomplishments. Our three hackweeks: Geohackweek, Neurohackweek, and Astrohackweek have, once again, been great successes, bringing together collaborators from the UW and around the world to learn and create together. The Data Science for Social Good program generated incredible projects that received well-deserved press coverage.

Our data scientists, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and students won numerous prizes and awards, and published world-class research. Other flagship activities including the Winter Incubator program, seminars, poster sessions, workshops, and working groups have attracted large crowds and campus-wide interest. We have created new data science courses to meet the growing needs and interests of our students. We advertised and disseminated our education programs across campus, with new departments joining our cross-university initiatives.

Astrohackweek 2017 participants do project work. Photo, Robin Brooks, eScience Institute
Astrohackweek 2017 participants do project work. Photo, Robin Brooks, eScience Institute

As the new year begins, we are happy to welcome our new cohort of postdoctoral fellows and graduate students! The graduate students are pursuing Advanced Data Science Options in multiple units on campus, while coming together as a cohort through data science classes, our seminars, and other events in the WRF Data Science Studio. The postdoctoral fellows bring with them invigorating outside expertise and creativity. They push the state-of-the-art in their domain while advancing data science methods.

We are also looking enthusiastically toward the upcoming year as we ramp up our signature activities including the eScience Community and Data Science Seminar Series, Software Carpentry workshops, our Working Groups, and more. We are excited to roll out additional new activities including the UW Data Science Career Fair, which was held earlier this month. Forty-four companies and 750 students and postdocs participated in the event.

Later this year, we are also planning a new UW Data Science Summit, a conference on the Seattle campus that will bring together data science experts and researchers from both academia and industry for a two-day event packed with talks, tutorials, and networking opportunities. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter to learn about the many upcoming activities and events.

Welcome all, and I hope to see you often in the data science studio!

Participants from the 2017 Neurohackweek, Astrohackweek and Geohackweek events.
Participants from the 2017 Neurohackweek, Astrohackweek and Geohackweek events