University of Maryland

DC DataFest 2024 A Virtual 48-hour data competition for teams of undergraduate students

Event Dates: April 12-14, 2024 Location: Virtual REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! Registration deadline is April 5! About DataFest The 2024 DC DataFest is a 48-hour competition where teams of undergraduate students from U.S. colleges and universities compete virtually to analyze rich, complex data sets from a major organization. Students are allowed just two slides to convince […]

The UMD Transatlantic Privacy Project

Date: Wednesday, January 24, 2024 Time:  1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Location: Virtual / Zoom EST Watch Video UMD students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends—join us for the next SoDa Symposium! Description: The UMD Transatlantic Privacy Project (https://privacyperceptions.org/) presents their findings from both qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (panel surveys) portions of the project, sharing insights on […]

SODA Symposium: Evolving a Data Enterprise to Support Relevant, Timely, and Equitable Statistical Products

Date: January 17, 2024 Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm Location: Zoom Watch Video Abstract: This is an exciting time to be part of official statistics. There is growing demand for statistical products that traditional surveys alone cannot address. Stakeholders want timelier, more accurate, more granular, and differently structured information about people, places, and the economy than […]

SoDa Seed Grant Series: Newspapers and the Lynching Story: Discoveries, Distortions, and Erasure, 1789-1963

Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2023Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pmLocation: Zoom   Abstract: Our project examines media coverage of lynching from 1789 to the current era. Researchers examined metadata of 60,000 pages of news coverage in the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America database and conducted a computational text analysis of a stratified sample. We find that some […]

Job Quality Measures – Data Literacy & Evidence Building

WATCH VIDEO January 23, 2024 The importance of creating good quality jobs has been highlighted in much recent legislation, including the  Chips and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the InfrastructureInvestment and Jobs Act, as well as the renewal of existing legislation such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.  Participants in a recent Executive Certificate class jointly offered by […]

Dealing with Missing Data in Education/Workforce Analysis – Data Literacy & Evidence Building

WATCH VIDEO January 30, 2024 The importance of high quality data and data access in creating evidence for policy making.   However, data that are systematically missing observations over time or for different groups of people can negatively impact the quality of that evidence.  Participants in a recent Executive Certificate class jointly offered by New York University and […]

SoDa Seed Grant Series: Socio-Algorithmic Foundations of Trustworthy Recommendations

Date: February 27, 2024 Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm Location: Zoom

SoDa Seed Grant Series: Effective Few-Shot Learning for Constructs in Psychological and Social Science

Date: TBD Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm Location: Zoom Abstract: The idea of a construct is central in the psychological and social sciences: constructs are abstract categories like empathy, misinformation, or benefits of social interaction that are operationalized in order to make them measurable. Social scientists spend an enormous amount of time and care in thinking […]

SoDa Seed Grant Series: How Can Data Science Be Used For Racial Equity?

Date: TBD, Fall 2024 Time: TBD Location: Zoom Abstract: Data science methods are increasingly being applied to large-scale educational data, but there has been less attention on the possibility of algorithmic bias. In this presentation, we present several metrics used for algorithmic bias, discuss how proportions of racial groups impact the presence of algorithmic bias, […]

SoDa Seed Grant Series: Correlating Population Demographics with Maryland’s County-Level Critical Infrastructure Vulnerabilities

Date: May 7, 2024 Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm Location: Zoom Abstract: Local government-controlled critical infrastructure relies on computer systems and is increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks that can disrupt its operation. This project aims to examine the relationship between cyber vulnerabilities in some critical infrastructure sectors in Maryland counties with available demographic factors to identify potential […]


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