The Data Science for All: Womenâs Summit, Fall 2020 program wrapped up on October 16 with a live virtual showcase and finale event. We're excited to share with you a recap of the winning projects in the Community Awards, as voted by all participants, mentors and TA's in the program.
The capstone projects are a very important part of the DS4A programs, and this cohort of 200+ fellows produced 44 projects between them. Each project was completed by a small team, in a very short time period. Fellows had just a few weeks to come up with an interesting idea, source and explore datasets, develop interesting analyses, and prepare their findings for us.
Team 22 earned the award for Best Data Visualizations. The team sought to understand the relationships between housing, COVID-19 rates and mobility in California, in order to identify geographic priority areas and racial, ethnic, and resource inequities in the state.
Their analysis included interactive dashboards and compelling visuals which illuminated troubling trends in racial, housing, income, and mobility disparities as it relates to COVID-19 outcomes. Encouragingly, the team also included actionable recommendations for policy makers, researchers, and advocates.
Team 15 earned the award for Best Data Insights. This team leveraged natural language processing techniques to mine comparative comments from online forums and product reviews, all related to the specific product features included in table tennis rubbers.
The team built a working dashboard which captured and presented interesting data insights across competitive table tennis rubbers. Prospective buyers could use the tool to aggregate review data and quickly understand the crowd's opinion on features like speed, hardness, spin, and durability.
Team 31 earned the award for Best Presentation Delivery. The team chose to investigate the relationships between public health risks, socioeconomic indicators, seismic hazards, and income levels on regional and localized scales.
This team developed a technically complex project using Geographically-weighted regression (GWR) models and spatial-cross correlation analyses. However, we were impressed by the team's coherent, well-articulated narrative, and their ability to synthesize the results into simple recommendations for local policy makers. You can find more details about their project on GitHub.
Team 8 earned awards for Best Real-World Impact and Best Overall Project. Their comprehensive analysis sought to understand the measures that have been most effective in decreasing the number of COVID-19 cases, and to predict possible outcomes for specific mitigation strategies.
The team developed predictive models for 8 different containment policies and 5 health system policies, across a variety of country-level demographics. Their research convincingly argued that travel bans, school closures, and public event cancellations were most effective in limiting COVID spread, whereas socio-economic factors and demographics played a secondary role. You can find more details about their project on GitHub.
To see each of these presentations, and awards, you can watch the full showcase here:
Congratulations to all the winning teams, and all participants of the DS4A: Women's Summit, Fall 2020.
If you're interested in applying to our DS4A programs, join our mailing list to be notified when new dates are announced. If you're interested in being part of DS4A as a Sponsor or a Mentor, please get in touch.