When Statistics Professor Babak Shahbaba took over as director of the Data Science Initiative, coordinating UCI faculty and students involved in data science activities, the plan was to broaden the initiative’s reach in terms of education, research and external relations. This plan motivated the creation of the Californian Data Experience Transformation (CADET) program, which aims to offer data science training via curriculum development, hands-on experiences, and close interactions with both academic and non-academic organizations.

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This summer, Professor Emerita Jessica Utts of UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) was recognized with two prestigious awards, highlighting her tremendous contributions related to the field of statistics.

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For decades, UCI has been known for its impressive Machine Learning Repository. With more than 580 publicly accessible datasets, the repository serves as a tremendous resource for empirical and methodological research in machine learning. It also serves as a great learning tool for UCI students, thanks to the second annual ML Hackathon, a student competition funded by the National Science Foundation. The UCI research community donated nine challenge datasets from the repository for the event and the Research Cyberinfrastructure Center (RCIC) provided the computational resources.

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The CHOC Research Institute, in partnership with UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), will launch a new data science pediatric capstone project that will explore innovative, data-driven approaches to improve pediatric health and train the next generation of leaders in the field of healthcare data sciences.

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On Aug. 9, 2021, at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) conference, Assistant Professor of Teaching Mine Dogucu received the Young Investigator Award. Given annually by the American Statistical Association (ASA) Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences (TSHS) section, the award recognizes a promising educator in statistics. “I am thankful for the support I receive from the statistics education community in Teaching Statistics and Health Sciences section and the broader American Statistical Association,” says Dogucu, whose work in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) focuses on curriculum development and modernization.

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UCI’s 56th annual commencement, though not unique in marking the university’s now second ever virtual ceremony, nevertheless represented something extraordinary. “The class of 2021 will have a unique place in our institutional memory as the most resilient and responsive class we have ever had the privilege of teaching,” said Chancellor Howard Gillman during his opening remarks. “Under the most extraordinary circumstances, you rose to the occasion, supported each other, adapted and persisted.”

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The first incarnation of the capstone course in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) was in 2009, with 19 students from the Department of Informatics working on five project teams. Now, more than a decade later, the Informatics capstone course is offered three times a year, and ICS has added undergraduate capstone courses for its computer science and data science majors. It also offers capstone courses through its Master of Human-Computer Interaction and Design (MHCID), Master of Computer Science (MCS) and Master of Software Engineering (MSWE) professional programs. Even with the global pandemic moving people out of classrooms and offices and into online spaces this past year, more than 130 ICS capstone projects were successfully completed.

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On May 20, 2021, Assistant Professor of Teaching Mine Dogucu was named one of 15 Teach Access Curriculum Development Awardees for 2021-2022. Teach Access is a collaboration among educators, industry leaders, and disability advocacy organizations that aims to support faculty across the country teaching accessible technology design and development to undergraduates. The Curriculum Development Award comes with $5,000 in funding for creating modules, presentations, exercises or curriculum enhancements that introduce the fundamentals of accessible design in classroom-based courses.

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Were you intrigued by the movie “Moneyball,” portraying the Oakland Athletics’ rise to fame in 2002 through the novel use of baseball statistics? Did you question how basketball teams were favored during this year’s March Madness? Have you ever wondered if there’s really a career path in sports related to UCI’s data science major? If so, the webinar series being offered by the Sport Statistics Group @UCI through the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) should be of interest to you. The next webinar, to be held on May 21, 2021, will feature Brendan Kent, a senior business data analyst at DraftKings and creator and host of the Measurables podcast.

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