Using Data Science to Mitigate Climate Change The WiDS Datathon 2022 will address an important way to mitigate the effects of climate change with a focus on energy efficiency. Climate change is a globally relevant, urgent, and multi-faceted issue heavily impacted by energy policy and infrastructure. Addressing climate change involves mitigation (i.e. mitigating greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation (i.e. preparing for unavoidable consequences). Mitigation of GHG emissions requires changes to electricity systems, transportation, buildings, industry, and land use. The WiDS Datathon dataset was created in collaboration with Climate Change AI (CCAI) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). WiDS Datathon participants will analyze differences in building energy efficiency, creating models to predict building energy consumption, an important first step in understanding how to maximize energy efficiency. Participants will use a dataset consisting of variables that describe building characteristics and climate and weather variables for the regions in which the buildings are located. Accurate predictions of energy consumption can help policymakers target retrofitting efforts to maximize emissions reductions. Worldwide Datathon Participation The WiDS Datathon, which requires that at least half of each team be individuals who identify as women, brings people together across borders and backgrounds. WiDS Datathon 2021 participants included nearly 4,000 registrants from 86 countries across 6 continents, and the winning teams were from USA, Switzerland, and Israel. In the WiDS Datathon 2021, 80 percent of the registrants identified as female, compared to a typical Kaggle competition that has less than 20 percent women participants. More than 75 percent of last year’s surveyed participants said they gained new skills in data science by participating in the competition. We invite anyone, from those new to data science to veterans of the field, to register for the datathon, including participants from academia, government, NGOs, or industry. Tutorials and Workshops The datathon provides exciting opportunities for both beginners and experienced data scientists to engage with an important application of data science. We are especially excited to support participants who are new to data science and machine learning - for participants hoping to learn data science fundamentals, we offer several introductory tutorials. In addition, many WiDS ambassadors around the world are also hosting workshops, where you can connect with other datathon participants as well as mentors. More workshops added daily! Awards This year, the WiDS Datathon will award a total of $25,000 in cash prizes–special thanks to Kaggle! Prizes will be awarded for the top three leaders on the Kaggle leaderboard at the close of the competition on February 26th (Phase 1), as well as through a WiDS Datathon Excellence in Research Award focused on research papers (Phase 2). In Phase 1, open January 6 - February 26, participants will submit their entries to be eligible for VIP tickets to the WiDS Worldwide Conference in 2023 and cash prizes. The top three individuals or teams on the leaderboard will be announced at the annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Worldwide Conference on March 7, 2022, held in-person and online. Datathon Excellence in Research Award In Phase II of the WiDS Datathon, we broaden our focus to examine the impacts of climate change across multiple domains. Participants in the Excellence in Research Award will have the opportunity to choose to explore one dataset among several, spanning sectors including healthcare, energy and environmental protection. Participants will also have opportunities to take deeper dives into their dataset and tackle a range of impactful real-world tasks. The Excellence in Research Award includes VIP registration for the WiDS Worldwide Conference in 2023 and additional cash prizes. Additionally, up to $7,000 USD will be distributed for honorable mentions across submitted research papers. Submissions will be open from March 8 - June 30, 2022. Begin competing in the WiDS Datathon 2022:
Ready to get started? We look forward to seeing your entries! Share it out! Click to tweet: I am participating in the #WiDSDatathon 2022 competition, now live on Kaggle! Join me in this social impact challenge: widsconference.org/datathon Related Articles:  Comments are closed.
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