Data Science Education as an Economic and Public Health Intervention: How (Bio)Statisticians Can Lead Change in the World

• Activity Number: 566 - Teaching Data Science for Good: How University-Based Initiatives Are Shaping Future Statisticians’ Societal Impact
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 6, 2020 : 3:00 PM to 4:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Consulting
• Author(s): Jeff Leek*
• Companies: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Keywords: data science; education; rstats; data equity; rstudio.cloud; edtech

Abstract

The data science revolution has led to massive new opportunities in technology, medicine, and business for people with data skills. Most people who have been able to take advantage of this revolution are already well educated, white-collar workers. In this talk I will describe our effort to expand access to data science jobs to individuals from under-served populations in East Baltimore. I will show how we are combining cloud based data science technologies, high-throughput educational data, and deep, low-throughput collaborations with local non-profits to use data science education as an economic and public health intervention. I will use this project to illustrate how biostatisticians have a unique opportunity in this data moment to lead change in the world