UMass Amherst Invites Prospective Partners to Data Science Event

*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***

UMass Amherst Invites Prospective Partners to Data Science Event

DATE:       Monday, Oct. 21
TIME:        Media availability at 3 p.m., program begins at 4 p.m.
WHAT:       Launch of 2020 Data Science for the Common Good (DS4CG)
WHERE:   College of Information and Computer Sciences, 140 Governors Drive

Data Science for the Common Good (DS4CG) is a summer program that trains aspiring data scientists to work on real-world problems that benefit the common good. Dozens of representatives from companies, nonprofits and government agencies, including State Senator Jo Comerford, are expected to attend a celebration of past accomplishments and the launch of the next season of DS4CG at this event. Attendees will learn how the Center for Data Science’s summer internship program could help them learn from large volumes of data, or data from disparate sources that they may not have time or resources to take strategic advantage of.

One goal is to engage prospective partner organizations in future projects as mentors, sponsors or clients, says Brant Cheikes, the center’s executive director. A partial list of companies expected to take part includes Great Barrington-based Synqware, automated controversy detection service AuCoDe, student services company Pay4Eduation, Inc., Nashville-based Change Healthcare, western Massachusetts-based PeoplesBank and MassMutual of Springfield.

Nonprofits and government agencies expected to attend include the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, The Nature Conservancy, Springfield Public Schools, Town of Amherst, City of Northampton, Community Legal Aid, Collaborative for Educational Services, Mass Audubon, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Greater Holyoke YMCA, Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, Massachusetts Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts.

DS4CG assigns fellows to work on a business or agency’s big data problem, with pay from UMass Amherst for their work supervised by UMass faculty and industry mentors. They provide weeklystatus updates, present a final report and transfer deliverables at the end. Students who took part in the 12-week summer DS4CG program as fellows this past summer will give “Lightning Talks,” short presentations about their projects now completed.