More than 700 people participated in Data Science Week 2019 with over twenty events hosted in Perth and Canberra. The Data Science Week (DSW) aims to bring together a community of data scientists across Australia to network and discuss trending topics and ideas across domains.
This year, our sister organisation National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) in Canberra co-hosted some sessions as part of C3DIS, a yearly event organised by the Australasian eResearch Organisations (AeRO) who aim to build a community of practice of scientists, researchers, and computing, data and information management specialists.
In Perth, the event was launch by Aditi Subramanya, Pawsey’s representative and DSW organiser. She reflected on how data can be used to tell scientific stories and how she is creating awareness of the importance of science and computing for society. Aditi is one of the ambassadors for science and diversity at Pawsey.
Following her, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith shared her story and her role as Australia’s Women in STEM ambassador and the importance the role plays for future generations. Lisa is also a Professor of Practice in Science Communications at UNSW Sydney.
NCI successfully ran a session supported by the Canberra chapter of Women in Big Data. Moderated by its founder, Jane Alexander, the session saw CSIRO’s Dr Karen Lee-Waddell present her research Throwing Light on Dark Matter – around her work with the WALLABY survey, one of the Australia Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder’s ten Survey Science Projects – where she explained how she detected seven new galaxies with the help of supercomputers.
During the week, Pawsey also took the opportunity to host one of its Careers Nights to inspire year 10 students to become one of the experts accelerating innovation in Australia. While Ann Backhaus, Pawsey’s Education and Training Manager, gathered with a group of educators in Canberra to discuss how can we make training relevant to a diverse population of learners and how to make educational materials that are reusable, scalable and sustainable.
These were only some of the events that overflowed the week of activities aiming to build a community of practice around data science, reveal it to a wider community and, at least this year, celebrate while encouraging diversity.
Thank you to all the participants and all the organisation that join Pawsey to make it possible, especially NCI and Aero.
L-R: Liz Dallimore: WADISH, Prof. Lisa Harvey-Smith: Australian Women in STEM Ambassador, Sarah James: Director of Data Deloitte, Dr. Kathryn Napier: Senior Data Scientist Curtin Institute for Computation and Helen Ensikat: Senior Analyst Department of Treasury
CSIRO's Dr Karen Lee-Waddell throwing light on Dark Matter at C3DIS
Pawsey space as part of C3DIS in Canberra
Pawsey's Ann Backhaus workshop. Relevant and Re-usable: Collaboration in Education at C3DIS
