WiDS Conference at Stanford University Showcases Cutting-Edge Data Science

The annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) conference will be held Wednesday March 8th at Stanford University and via livestream.

Speakers will discuss innovative data science projects solving some of today’s toughest challenges – climate change, police violence, the search for dark matter, drug discovery, health disparities, political disinformation, and more.

The conference features outstanding women from across the field who are using cutting-edge data science to solve some of today’s toughest problems. Speakers will share technical expertise and their perspectives on using data science to have an impact on challenges from tackling climate change and police violence, to discovering dark matter and new drugs, to addressing health disparities and political disinformation.
 
Featured speakers include:

• Jennifer Pan, a Professor of Communication at Stanford who researches digital censorship and information manipulation in China and other authoritarian countries.
• Trina Reynolds-Tyler, the Data Director at the Invisible Institute, who uses machine learning to uncover patterns of gender-based violence at the hands of police.
• Maria Elena Monzani, who studies the nature and origin of dark matter at Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.
• Priya Donti, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Climate Change AI, an initiative to encourage the use of machine learning to address climate change.

 
Since hosting their first conference at Stanford in 2015, WiDS has grown into a global movement that includes more than 200 regional events a year in over 60 countries, reaching 100,000 participants annually. WiDS also hosts an annual datathon, a podcast series, skill-building workshops, and programming for secondary students.
 
Margot Gerritsen, a data scientist and Professor Emerita at Stanford, co-founded WiDS and launched the first conference eight years ago. Here is her perspective on what makes the WiDS conference unique: “There are many great events out there that bring people together to talk about gender and diversity in tech. We created the WiDS conference because we wanted a technical conference that focused on the data science itself – but with speakers that just happen to be women. We feature breakthrough data science that’s having a big impact but might not be showcased at other conferences where women tend to be underrepresented.”
 
The conference welcomes everyone with an interest in data science and machine learning. Participants have an opportunity to connect with other attendees from industry, academia, government, and the nonprofit world, as well as students and data-scientists-in-training. Sessions combine portions that are accessible to beginners with deep dives into the technical aspects of the work that are of interest to more experienced data scientists.
 
While the in-person conference at Stanford is sold out, thousands of participants are expected to attend online for free. Participants are also encouraged to check out regional WiDS conferences and events happening around the world throughout the rest of year.
 
Women in Data Science Conference
8:30am to 4:30pm PST on Wednesday March 8, 2023
 
Conference agenda: https://www.widsconference.org/widsstanfordagenda.html
Free livestream: livestream.com/accounts/1973198/events/10788211
Follow along on Twitter at #WiDS2023 and @WiDS_Worldwide
 
Media coverage and perspectives from speakers at the 2022 and 2023 WiDS conferences:
Fast Company - “How AI can help predict weather in the era of climate change”
Newsweek - “The Human Side of Data Science Can No Longer Be an Afterthought”
Venture Beat - “AI is transforming medicine: Here’s how we make sure it works for everyone”
Fortune - “A new generation of data scientists could be our best weapon against climate change”
KD Nuggets - “Using Data Science to Make Clean Energy More Equitable”