2023 Women in Data Science Conference at Stanford University
Recognizing that the data science field has traditionally been male-dominated, Women in Data Science (WiDS) seeks to address the imbalance by encouraging and supporting women in this field.
WiDS has been holding conferences annually at Stanford University for seven years. The conference provides inspiration, support, and community for women worldwide who are in the data science field. It brings together leading researchers, professionals, and students in the data science community to discuss the latest trends and advancements in the field, and to inspire and empower women to pursue careers in data science. Our MSDS program generously offered tickets to members of our cohort to attend the conference. I am really glad I took this opportunity to go to the event as I was inspired a lot from it. It was also a great opportunity to network and meet other data scientists and potential employers.
The full-day event features keynote speakers, panel discussions, technical workshops, and networking opportunities. The speakers are from different backgrounds and brought their research, insights, and experience to audiences that were very inspiring. Some of the very impressive talks were from Jennifer Pan, a professor at Stanford University who gave a presentation about collecting and analyzing data from Chinese social media, and shared insights about the very different political culture in China based on the social media data. Some other impressive speakers were Priya Donti, the cofounder and executive director of Climate Change AI. She illustrated how to use machine learning to address climate change, which was totally new to me, thus very interesting.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, WiDS provides numerous networking opportunities to attendees. There was a morning break, a lunch break and an afternoon break, all of which were very good opportunities to network with other attendees. I definitely took advantage of this opportunity and met some new friends from startups, large corporations such as Google, and other famous tech companies from the Bay Area and even Europe.
During lunch time, some companies in separate rooms gave demonstrations. Companies such as Two Sigma, Wells Fargo, Pinterest, Boeing, and Intuit were there for hiring . I got the chance to talk to most of the employers to learn about their hiring needs. The following week after the conference, I received a pre-screening interview request from one of them.
After our speakers gave individual speeches, there was a 30-minute panel discussion about creating a sustainable and equitable community.
After a long day, it was time to relax and enjoy some snacks. WiDS offered wine and appetizers to all the attendees. The food was delicious. It was another great chance to meet other attendees and employers. I got to talk to three to four companies, learned about their business and current hiring needs. A very good opportunity to build connections!
The whole day’s event ended around 6pm after the networking. I really appreciated that the MSDS program offered me a ticket to the conference. I learned interesting insights from the talks, met other data scientists, and also had interactions with employers who are hiring. It is such a great event. I am sure I will want to attend it again in 2024!
