Virtual WSDS Maintains Connection Among Participants

More than 350 people attended the virtual WSDS, which began September 30 with two short courses. Conference presentations began October 1 and included two plenary talks and a plenary panel.

During the first plenary, which took place Thursday morning, Michelle Dunn invited listeners into her garden to provide context for her talk about her data science leadership journey. She introduced attendees to two of her mentors, who added to Dunn’s wisdom and advice with their perspectives.

Thursday’s formal presentations ended with a plenary panel featuring Lynne Billard of the University of Georgia, Susan Ellenberg of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and Nancy Reid of the University of Toronto—all past recipients of the F.N. David Award. Nusrat Jahan of James Madison University and Dalene Stangl of Carnegie Mellon University served as moderators. Thursday also included a virtual networking event that allowed friends and colleagues to talk, a tradition for many who attend WSDS.

The final day of the conference, Friday, began with a plenary presentation by Catherine D’Ignazio of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lauren F. Klein of Emory University, authors of the book Data Feminism. D’Ignazio and Klein challenged attendees to consider a new way of thinking about data science informed by intersectional feminism. They asked the audience to consider questions such as “Data science by whom?” “Data science for whom?” and “Data science with whose interests in mind?” Members of the audience shared their thoughts, making for a spirited virtual discussion. 

The conference themes are Share Knowledge, Build Community, and Grow Influence, which are represented in the many concurrent sessions and poster presentations. For example, the 2020 conference had panel discussions about data governance in the era of big data, organized by Katherine S. Panageas; promoting mentor-mentee relationships, chaired by Emma Benn; and skills and strategies for successful negotiation, organized by Jessica Lavery. Topics of concurrent session presentations ranged from how to get published by Andee Nichols to generalization to higher-order function smoothness in bandit optimization of non-convex functions by Yusha Liu. Additionally, there was time devoted to viewing posters and having conversation with poster presenters.

This year’s conference took place during both the International Year of Women in Statistics and Data Science and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale. In recognition of these events, organizers for the WSDS 2020 Data Challenge invited teams and individuals to create a visualization to help the public better understand an important current issue. The image accompanying this article was created by Serifat Folorunso from the University of Ibadan Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis in Nigeria.

Plans for WSDS 2021 are already underway. Suggestions for the conference can be sent to ASA Director of Strategic Initiatives and Outreach Donna LaLonde.