WiDS Blog Archive

Women Using Data Science to Build a More Sustainable World

11/16/2021

Data science is a crucial tool to quantify, predict and communicate about the impact of climate change. For example, a recent study used machine learning to analyze over 100,000 weather events that could be linked to global warming and discovered that 80 percent of the earth’s land has been adversely impacted and at least 85 percent of the world’s population has been affected by extreme weather events caused by climate change.

The Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference and podcast series has been showcasing leading women data science experts who are using data science to help us understand the impact and potential solutions to combat climate change. Our WiDS Datathon 2022 dataset will also be focused on the impacts of climate change.

Here are some recent podcasts, panels, and talks from our WiDS conferences that address sustainability.

Registration now open: WiDS Worldwide conference, March 7, 2022

10/19/2021

Register now for the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Worldwide conference 2022, a technical conference featuring outstanding women discussing their exceptional work in data science and related fields, in a wide variety of research domains. All genders are welcome and encouraged to attend!

Data Visualization: Turning Information Into Images

10/13/2021

Data scientists work with large data sets that require computational analysis to gain insights and knowledge that often drive important decisions within organizations in industry, academia, non-profits, and government. In order for these insights to have the desired impact, data scientists need to communicate clearly to be well--and quickly--understood. Data visualization allows data scientists the ability to provide unique views into the data and about the data, turning data sets into insights at-a-glance.

Save the Date! WiDS Worldwide: March 7, 2022

9/16/2021

We’re happy to announce the next WiDS Worldwide hybrid conference happening on March 7, 2022, in-person at Stanford University, on the Hopin virtual event platform, and on livestream. Save the date by adding WiDS Worldwide to your calendar:

Dealing with Missing Data

9/15/2021

We live in an era of big data with data sets that require computational analysis to gain insights and knowledge. The volume of big data has been increasing steadily, and will only continue to climb. Since we started the WiDS initiative in 2015, Statistica estimates that the volume of data has increased from 15.5 to 74 zetabytes, and they forecast that data volume will double again by 2024.

Yet with all of this data, one of the biggest challenges that data scientists and researchers face is dealing with missing data. In some cases, the missing data is due to not readily having access to the data sets that are required to perform the analysis, while other cases involve data sets that are incomplete and not uniformly populated.

Responsible Data Science

8/18/2021

Data science is being applied in a growing number of domains that affect everyone’s lives, in healthcare, financial services, agriculture, resource management, and beyond. While data science has huge potential for good, there are also unintended consequences. Data scientists need to take steps to mitigate as many unintended consequences as they can using Responsible Data Science — a set of policies, procedures, and best practices to ensure algorithmic fairness, transparency, and explainability.

WiDS Honors Juneteenth 2021

6/17/2021

To celebrate Juneteenth 2021, we revisit our pledges, report progress, and renew the commitments we made on Juneteenth last year, in the wake of George Floyd’s death. We reinforced our commitment to extend our outreach to the communities, organizations, universities, and schools that serve Black and underrepresented minority communities.

Women in Data Science at the Forefront of COVID Research

5/11/2021

The Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference and podcast series has been showcasing leading women data science experts who are making an impact at the forefront of COVID research. Here are three talks from the conference and three podcasts:

WiDS Worldwide, now available in Arabic & Spanish

5/10/2021

On International Women’s Day, March 8, we held a 24-hour virtual WiDS Worldwide conference. During the conference, in order to make the content as accessible as possible for a global audience, we provided simultaneous interpretation of the main sessions, the workshops, and the meet-the speaker sessions in Arabic and in Spanish. When registrants joined the online event platform, they could select a ‘translate’ option, and begin listening to the talks in Arabic or Spanish immediately.

WiDS 2021 highlights shared from Chaitanyasuma Jain

4/10/2021

Editors note: Chaitanyasuma Jain is a computer engineering student at Cummins College of Engineering for Women in Pune. She has been a WiDS Pune volunteer since 2018 and attended the WiDS Pune regional event organized by WiDS ambassadors at WiMLDS Pune. In this WiDStory written by Chaitanyasuma, she shares her thoughts and inspiring takeaways from WiDS conference sessions.

Paths to Leadership in Data Science Panel Questions

3/30/2021

Editors note: During the recent 24-hour virtual WiDS Worldwide conference, Martina Lauchengco of Costanoa Ventures moderated a panel discussion on the Paths to Leadership in Data Science, which included the following panelists:

Meet the WiDS 2021 Sponsors!

2/18/2021

The Global WiDS team wants to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude to the WiDS 2021 sponsors who have made the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Worldwide Conference possible. These sponsors have provided much needed support, enthusiasm, and dedication to the Global WiDS initiative. Hear from some of our WiDS 2021 sponsors, and explore opportunities they have for you in data science.

Registration Now Open for WiDS Worldwide Conference

1/11/2021

On March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day, we will host the inaugural 24-hour online Women in Data Science (WiDS) Worldwide conference. Registration is now open and early bird pricing is in effect through February 5, 2021. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Follow us as we follow the sun, bringing you speakers and sessions from around the world. The WiDS Worldwide conference will include:

Join us for WiDS 2021

11/2/2020

Today, the Women in Data Science (WiDS) initiative celebrates its birthday! Five years ago we hosted the inaugural WiDS Conference at Stanford University. Our goals were the same then as they are now: to inspire women to join the field, educate participants regardless of gender, and support women in the field. In addition to the 400+ participants at Stanford for our inaugural conference, we discovered that 6,000+ people participated online. That made us realize that we had an opportunity for greater impact, worldwide.

In honor of Juneteenth

6/19/2020

To commemorate Juneteenth, we are reaching out to clearly state our actions and intentions in response to recent events. In the past weeks and months the US and the world have been reeling–first with a global pandemic, followed by the systemic injustice, inequality, and racism that the pandemic and most recent acts of police brutality exposed.

Spotlight: WiDS Innovation Leader Sponsors

4/14/2020

The Global WiDS team wants to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude to our WiDS 2020 Innovation Leaders sponsors who have made the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference possible. These sponsors have provided much needed support, enthusiasm, and dedication to the Global WiDS initiative.

Spotlight: WiDS Global Visionary Sponsors

2/26/2020

The Global WiDS team wants to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude to our WiDS 2020 sponsors who have made the Global Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference, and associated initiatives, possible. In this article, the first of two, we thank the WiDS Global Visionary sponsors: Facebook, Intuit, Walmart Labs, and Wells Fargo. In addition to sponsoring the main conference at Stanford, WiDS Global Visionary sponsors provide funding for other WiDS programs including the WiDS Datathon, WiDS podcast series, and education outreach programs, thereby expanding the entire WiDS initiative reach and impact.

Celebrating 5 years of WiDS: From Conference to Movement

10/22/2019

The Women in Data Science (WiDS) initiative began in November 2015 with a one-day technical conference, featuring outstanding women doing outstanding work. As we prepare for our 5th WiDS conference in 2020, WiDS is movement, with a worldwide conference, global datathon, podcast series, and education outreach programs. Each year, we impact more people in more places around the world, including people who have told their WiDStories.

Announcing the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference 2019

10/28/2018

The Women in Data Science (WiDS) initiative began in November 2015 at Stanford University with the inaugural WiDS conference. Our goals were to inspire and educate participants, regardless of gender, and support women in the field. The inspiration and education is the result of featuring amazing female speakers doing outstanding work in the field, in a broad set of domains.