Tag: STEM

Exploring our World, Interview

Evolving the Hackweek Model with ICESat-2 2022

The eScience Institute hosts a variety of hackweeks every year, which are designed to immerse participants in collaborative project work around a specific topic. Hackweeks try to blend elements of a hackathon, where participants work collaboratively in project teams, with tutorials on a variety of data science topics in an immersive and inclusive environment. eScience hackweeks provide a deep dive into an area of science with a focus on how data science methods and tools can be utilized to further research. For each hackweek, the program format evolves and is modified and adjusted to best suit the problem space and the user community. A great example of this process is the ICESat-2 Hackweek, which wrapped up earlier this year.

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Exploring our World, Interview

Python for Humanities: an Intro for Researchers

The eScience Institute and UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons recently co-hosted a workshop called “Python, your personal research assistant” for participants studying the humanities to explore the Python programming language and how to use it as a tool to aid in qualitative humanities work. Led by eScience Technical Education Specialist Naomi Alterman, the program encouraged students to decipher lines of Python, and learn how to make use of it to complete repetitive tasks. “I’m expecting folks to show up to the workshop with no experience with computer code,” Naomi Alterman said. “And I want them to leave with a suitable argument as to why it’s useful for them in the future.”

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Exploring our World, Interview

Data Science Student Profiles: Stefan de Villiers


The University of Washington hosted the Data Science Minor Showcase several weeks ago, an event for undergraduates to explore the curriculum offered as part of the Data Science Minor program that was launched in Fall 2020. The showcase featured UW faculty outlining the new courses they have developed for the Minor, personal experiences from students who are currently enrolled in the minor, as well as smaller breakout sessions for participants to learn more about possible pathways towards data science from their areas of interest. One of the students who shared their experience with the Data Science Minor program was Stefan de Villiers, a UW senior who is majoring in Economics in addition to minoring in both Data Science and Mathematics.

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Exploring our World, Interview

Data Science Student Profiles: Bonnie Du

The University of Washington’s Data Science Minor brings data science to a wide range of undergraduates within and beyond the STEM fields. 186 students are currently enrolled in the new minor, representing 54 areas of study at the university. UW undergrads interested in gaining literacy in data science methods and understanding their implications for society should look into adding a Data Science Minor to their studies. Ben Marwick, Senior Data Science Fellow and Director of the Data Science minor, described how the program will balance data skills and studies: “The goal is to combine the technical skills that relate to the new developments of generating and analyzing large amounts of data, then give students the context and the critical thinking skills to do something meaningful with that.”

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