By Robin Brooks

As 2016 draws to a close, we wanted to take a moment to share some of the exciting milestones the eScience Institute hit over the course of the past year. Over 2400 attendees participated in hundreds of data science events, trainings, seminars, working groups and receptions from Nov. 1, 2015 through Oct. 31, 2016. More than 40 seminars were held featuring data science experts, which were attended cross-departmentally by students, faculty, staff and the general public.

The Institute also hosted two new “hackathons,” conferences geared toward connecting data scientists and researchers to solve problems and brainstorm innovations. Neurohackweek focused on neuroimaging, analysis and reproducibility, and Geohackweek brought collaborators together to work on geospatial datasets.

This year we sponsored the second installment of the Data Science for Social Good Program, which featured projects pertaining to improving urban issues such as food safety and transportation.

The program matched 16  students (graduate and undergraduate) with researchers and data scientists who collectively worked together to make data-driven discoveries. When the fellows presented their findings, some were covered in The Seattle Times and other media outlets.

Other successes include the completion of the 2016 Winter Incubator, an innovative program that connects data scientists and domain scientists to work on collaborative projects. This fall, the a new Master of Science in Data Science program was launched. And, our staff and affiliates also put out two new books (1 and 2), developed a new music dataset, were featured in a magazine and even received a prestigious award.

It was a tremendous year, and we’re so grateful to you for being interested in, and a part of, our community. Here’s to a fact-based, ethical, well-researched, open-sourced, reproducible – and fabulous – 2017!