WiDS Datathon News

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How AI can help predict weather in the era of climate change

From floods in California to freezing temperatures in Texas, 2023 has already seen its share of unusual weather. As climate change intensifies, extreme weather events like heat waves, hurricanes, and droughts will continue to become more common. As weather conditions change, it’s essential to know what’s coming. We need accurate weather forecasts on many different time scales in order to prepare for climate-related disasters, manage the power supply, plan agriculture, keep transportation running smoothly, and much more. However, we find ourselves in a catch-22, because as weather conditions change and intensify, they become even harder to forecast.
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Announcing the 6th Annual WiDS Datathon 2023 Challenge: Adapting to Climate Change by Improving Extreme Weather Forecasts

The 6th Annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon launches in January 2023, in the lead up to the WiDS conferences in March 2023. In this year’s datathon challenges participants will use data science to improve longer-range weather forecasts to help people prepare and adapt to extreme weather events caused by climate change.
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A new generation of data scientists could be our best weapon against climate change

Data science is emerging as a powerful weapon in the fight against climate change. For example, an international team of researchers recently identified the top sites in the world releasing methane. They used machine learning algorithms to analyze thousands of satellite images and pinpoint “ultra-emitter” sites responsible for about 10% of the oil and gas industry’s global methane emissions. Many are pipeline leaks that are impossible to detect from the ground, but relatively simple and cost-effective to fix once they have been found.
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Winter hackathon meets WiDS datathon

Sponsored by the DSI, LLNL’s winter hackathon took place on February 16–17. Hackathons are 24-hour events that encourage collaborative programming and creative problem solving. In addition to traditional hacking, the hackathon included a special datathon competition in anticipation of the Women in Data Science (WiDS) conference on March 7. Hackathon and datathon participants presented their projects on the second day. The datathon challenged participants to create a predictive model using a climate dataset curated by the global WiDS organization, and teams had the option of submitting their results to the worldwide competition. LLNL organizers were Cindy Gonzales, Amar Saini, Mary Silva, and Jennifer Bellig.
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Abid Ali Awan's Story of Participating in Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon 

WiDS Datathon participant shares their experience of almost winning the competition and the things they have learned from the failures. Learn more about the WiDS Datathon and tips on winning the 2022 challenge.
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WiDS 2022 Datathon Workshop Rio de Janeiro @ IBM

Many IBM'ers are excited to participate in this year's WiDS Datathon challenge. So far about 20 IBM teams have formed - including 2 solo participants. On December 20, 2021 , Dr. Jaione Tirapu-Azpiroz, ran an on-boarding event for the Datathon to demonstrate how to engage in the Titanic beginners' contest as preparation for the WiDS Datathon 2022. 
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The Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon 2022 is Now Live on Kaggle!

The 5th Annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon is now open on Kaggle, and the competition has begun! This annual datathon encourages women to hone their skills through a  data science challenge focused on social impact. Watch the recording from the WiDS Datathon Welcome Event to learn about how you can get started with the WiDS Datathon competition. We’ll guide you through the first steps on Kaggle, datathon resources, tutorials, workshops, and more.
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A datathon to empower women in climate change and data science

The 5th Annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon will launch in January in partnership with Climate Change AI. WiDS is an initiative started by Stanford University that aims to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and to support women in the field. Our partners CCAI wrote this article on the datathon.
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WiDS Datathon 2021 Teams from IBM

We are thrilled that at least 26 teams from IBM participated in the WiDS (Women in Data Science) Datathon in 2021 and appeared on the contest leaderboard. The teams were based in various countries including Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, UAE, UK, and the US. The teams came from different groups such as Cloud and Cognitive Software, Finance & Operations, Global Business Services, Global Markets and  Research. Some IBMers also acted as mentors for both IBM and non-IBM teams.
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The Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon 2021 is Now Live!

The 4th Annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon is now open on Kaggle, and the competition has begun! This annual datathon encourages women to hone their skills through a  data science challenge focused on social impact. Register now to take the challenge.
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Announcing the 4th Annual WiDS Datathon Challenge: Identifying Diabetes Condition to Provide Better Care for ICU Patients

We are gearing up to launch the 4th Annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon in January, in advance of our first 24-hour virtual 2021 WiDS Worldwide Conference on March 8th. This year’s datathon, organized by the WiDS Worldwide team, the West Big Data Innovation Hub, and the WiDS Datathon Committee, will focus on models to determine whether a patient admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been diagnosed with a particular type of diabetes.
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WiDS Datathon 2020 Results and Impact

The results show that 80% of the WiDS Datathon registrants identified as female, which is unusual as Kaggle reports that typically 80%+ of competitors in comparable data science online competitions are male. More than 70% of the WiDS Datathon survey respondents said that they gained new skills in data science by participating in this year’s competition.
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Source Allies Takes on the WiDS 2020 Datathon

Every year the Women in Data Science initiative (WiDS) provides a datathon open to teams with an interest in data science regardless of experience. WiDS defines a datathon as a “data-focused hackathon — given a dataset and a limited amount of time, participants are challenged to use their creativity and data science skills to build, test, and explore solutions.”
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WiDS 2020 Datathon Winners and Early Feedback from IBM Teams

The WiDS 2020 contestants had been monitoring the contest leaderboard intently as they made their submissions through January and February until the deadline on February 24. Finally on March 2, 2020 we watched the livestream from Stanford University where the WiDS Datathon 2020 winners were announced.  Apparently 1,479 participants from 85 countries participated in the datathon. 
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Just do it! WiDS Datathon 2020 last days to register

Time is running out! February 21st is the team merger deadline, and February 24th is the last day to enter the competition and submit your entries for the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon 2020. This year the contest is focused on patient health, with data from MIT’s GOSSIS (Global Open Source Severity of Illness Score) initiative.
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WiDS Datathon 2020 Workshops Worldwide 2020

The WiDS Datathon initiative has grown with over 20 regional datathon workshops, in 13 countries, many of them taking place over multiple days. We are thrilled to see involvement from so many worldwide WiDS ambassadors who have facilitated active participation and collaboration throughout their communities.
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Announcing the first-ever WiDS Datathon Excellence in Research Award

To help encourage deeper exploration and the development of collaborative data science innovations, WiDS Datathon Committee and the National Science Foundation Big Data Innovation Hubs are hosting a second phase of the​ WiDS Datathon this year — with a new WiDS Datathon Excellence in Research Award.
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Explore the Data - WiDS Datathon 2020

The Women in Data Science competition is now available in Kaggle . In this post we provide you with a basic notebook that will allow you to start solving the challenge. To start solving the Datathon, it is necessary to become familiar with the problem, for this, it is necessary to analyze the data. We will use the Google Collaboratory functionalities to create our initial notebook.
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The WiDS Datathon 2020 is Now Live, Encouraging Women Worldwide to Hone Their Data Science Skills

The 3rd Annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon competition is now open on Kaggle, and the competition has begun! The WiDS Datathon 2020 challenge is to create a model that uses data from the first 24 hours of intensive care to predict patient survival. MIT’s GOSSIS community initiative, with privacy certification from the Harvard Privacy Lab, has provided a dataset of more than 130,000 hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) visits from patients, spanning a one-year timeframe. 
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Announcing the 3rd Annual WiDS Datathon

In advance of the March 2, 2020 Global WiDS Conference, we invite you to build a team, hone your data science skills, and join us in a predictive analytics challenge focused on social impact. The WiDS Datathon 2020 focuses on patient health through data from MIT's GOSSIS (Global Open Source Severity of Illness Score) initiative.
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Competing in the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon 2019

The journey through this one-month challenge taught me a lot, as WiDS gave us guidelines on how to go about the challenge and gave us resources to study with to hone our Data Science skills. WiDS introduced me to Kaggle.com which provides tutorials on Data Science related courses. This platform helped me a lot in my journey. Anything Data Science catches my interest now thanks to this competition.​
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How a team of deep learning newbies came 3rd place in a kaggle contest

My Teammates and I (Abdishakur, Halimah, and Ifeoma Okoh) used the fast.ai framework for this challenge. Big thanks to Thomas Capelle for his starter kernel on kaggle, it provided so much insight into how to approach this problem and also the fast.ai team for creating an amazing deep learning course that simplifies a lot of difficult deep learning concepts. Now beginners to deep learning can now go as far as winning kaggle contests.
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Calling all aspiring women in Data Science

What started as a one-day conference organized by Stanford University in 2015, Women in Data Science (WiDS) has blossomed into a movement bringing together women data scientists and aspiring data scientists via a series of over 150 virtual and in-person events worldwide, ultimately culminating in the March 4, 2019 main event at Stanford. Microsoft is a proud partner of WiDS; in addition to supporting the Datathon via the webinar, Microsoft also provided Xboxes as prizes.
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WiDS Datathon Workshops Worldwide 2019

This year the #WiDSDatathon initiative has grown with regional datathon workshops taking place around the globe. We are thrilled to see involvement from several of our WiDS ambassadors who have facilitated active participation and collaboration throughout their communities. WiDS Datathon workshops have been taking place in partnership with the following WiDS satellite events:
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Reflections on my First Kaggle Competition

Now that the new Women in Data Science (WiDS) competition is in progress, I want to share my experience with the competition last year in hopes that it encourages more people to compete this year. The competition ends February 27th, and there is still time for you to get involved. You must form your team by February 21.
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Figure Eight Partners with the Women in Data Science Conference on a Datathon for Global Good

At Figure Eight, we’ve always been fans of the Women in Data Science Conference (WiDS). They inspire people from across the world to hone their data science skills, they focus on underserved populations, and they promote data for the common good. Based in nearby Stanford, WiDS now reaches tens of thousands of (virtual) attendees and is growing every year. It’s a tremendous conference with a good heart and some great content and lessons for data scientists at every skill level.

Datathon WiDS 2019: Arranca el desafío analítico para científicas de datos

Vuelve la competición de datos Women in Data Science que pondrá a prueba los conocimientos en analítica de datos: un datathon, que tendrá lugar hasta el 27 de febrero de 2019 para equipos de entre 1 y 4 personas con, al menos, un 50% de mujeres, y compuestos por científicos de datos, matemáticos, y expertos en otras áreas relacionadas o aficionados a la analítica de datos, deberán aplicar sus conocimientos en Data Science.
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Arranca el desafío analítico para las científicas de datos con el Datathon WiDS 2019

Woman in Data Science es el Datathon que tendrá lugar el próximo 27 de febrero y consiste en crear un modelo que pueda detectar plantaciones de aceite de palma en imágenes por satélite para concienciar sobre la deforestación que conlleva este cultivo intensivo.Los equipos deberán registrarse en la web a partir del 29 de enero y hasta el 27 de febrero de 2019.
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Submit an Entry to the WiDS Datathon

This tutorial walks through creating and submitting predictions to Kaggle for the 2nd Annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon, which asks participants to detect the presence of oil palm plantations in satellite imagery. For an introduction to the datathon challenge and how to participate, check out the competition on Kaggle and this blog post.
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Resolviendo un reto de Kaggle desde Colab

La Datathon de Women in Data Science este año es un reto de clasificación, donde se busca aprender a identificar en imágenes satelitales de áreas tropicales la existencia ó no plantaciones de palma. Empezaremos a analizar el dataset de la competencia desde Google Colab. La primera tarea es: Cargar el dataset en el entorno de Colab. Para ello existen varias opciones, en este caso haremos uso del API de Kaggle.
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¡Sumate al datatón y a WiDS 2019!

Este año, el equipo global de WIDS – West Big Data Innovation Hub -  y el comité del Datatón se asociaron con Planet y Figure Eight para facilitar más de 20,000 imágenes satelitales a los participantes. El desafío propuesto consiste en crear un modelo que permita identificar de manera predictiva la presencia de plantaciones de Palm Oil (aceite de palma) o las deforestaciones. Para ello, quienes decidan participar deben usar  la plataforma online de Kaggle.
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Planet Partners with 2nd Annual Women in Data Science Datathon, Building Awareness And Solutions In Deforestation

In partnership with Women in Data Science (WiDS), the West Big Data Innovation Hub, and Figure Eight, Planet is bringing its unique dataset to a competition that challenges participants to use data science to build awareness and solutions for tropical deforestation and palm oil production. The competition, launching today on Kaggle, comes in advance of the 2019 Global Women in Data Science Conference, held on March 4, 2019 at Stanford University in California. 
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Ready, Set, Go! WiDS Datathon 2019 now live

The 2nd Annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon is launching today, January 29, 2019! In advance of the March 4, 2019 Global WiDS Conference, the Global WiDS Team, the West Big Data Innovation Hub, and the WiDS Datathon Committee have been working with Planet and Figure Eight to bring a dataset of high-resolution satellite imagery to participants, building awareness about deforestation and oil palm plantations.
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Empowering Through Data: WiDS & WiDS Datathon

Last Monday, February 12, women from all walks of life came to Microsoft New England R&D (NERD) Center to explore ways predictive analytics can be used to solve this issue. As part of the global Women in Data Science Conference (WiDS) hosted at Stanford University and at the Microsoft New England R&D center on March 5, we were excited to bring together women for a WiDS 2018 Data Workshop and conference pre-event.
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Team Wins the Inaugural Women in Data Science Datathon

A team of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) students took first place in the inaugural Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon, a monthlong event that encourages women data scientists to engage in social impact solutions by participating in a predictive analytics challenge. Xi Lui and Ye Wang, both graduate students in WPI’s data science program, beat out more than 200 teams composed of students, faculty, and professional data scientists from 26 countries. “It was very interesting and also very challenging to compete with some of the top people in this field,” said Wang. “We were thrilled to win, but what we learned during the competition was much more important than the first-place outcome.”
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LinkedIn Article: ​The Women in Data Science Datathon Experience

Women in Data Science (WiDS) is a global event that encourages more women into the field of data science. As part of this year’s event they introduced the WiDS Datathon which was hosted on Kaggle, to allow people to demonstrate and improve their machine learning skills. The problem involved trying to predict a person’s gender based on traditional and mobile banking information. I teamed up with some of my friends, machine learning experts Vinay Benny and Julia Arnold to be one of the teams to represent New Zealand. I think the Kaggle competition provided many opportunities to help people into the field of data science. There are also things that it won’t teach you. If you are planning on entering future competitions then here is some advice on what to expect and how well the skills you get from a Kaggle competition line up with the realities of a data science job.
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