Women in Data Science (WiDS) - Davis Conference

The Women in Data Science (WiDS) initiative aims to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and to support women in the field. ​WiDS started as a conference at Stanford in November 2015. Now, WiDS includes a global conference, with approximately 150+ regional events worldwide; a datathon, encouraging participants to hone their skills using a social impact challenge; and a podcast, featuring leaders in the field talking about their work, their journeys, and lessons learned. ​

Join us for WiDS - Davis to engage in the global conversation and network with local data scientists. Please note that our schedule is a hybrid of in person engagement coupled with livestreams from the flagship conference at Stanford.

UC Davis DataLab Affiliates receive priority registration. Registration will also be prioritized for individuals who can engage for the full day-long event.  

Once your application is accepted you will receive a confirmation email with instructions to complete your registration. This event is free to UC Davis students, postdocs, faculty and staff (please bring your campus ID).

Schedule:

8:30-9am Reception

9-9:15 Introductions and Welcome

9:15-9:30am Opening Address, Persis Drell, Provost, Stanford University (livestream)

9:30-10am Keynote Address, Daphne Koller, CEO and Founder of insitro (livestream)

10-10:40am Ethics panel (livestream)

10:40-11am Morning break and discussion

11-11:40 Technical Vision Talks (livestream)

• Ya Xu, Head of Data Science at Linked In
• Fanny Chevalier, Asst Professor at Univ Toronto

11:40-11:50am WiDS Announcement and datathon winners (livestream)

11:50-12:30 Technicial Vision Talks

• Rama Akkiraju, IBM Fellow and Director of AI Operations
• Talithia Williams, Assoc Dean and Assoc Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd

12:30-2pm Interactive Luncheon (registration required)

Over lunch, participants will engage in faciliated breakout group discussions on the following topics:

• pathways into data science
• the leaky data science pipeline
• bias in algorithms
• invisible labor in the data sciences

2-2:30pm Afternoon Keynote, Tsu-Jae Liu, Dean, UC Berkeley School of Engineering (livestream)

2:30-3:10pm Technical Vision Talks (livestream)

• Nhung Ho, Directory of Data Science at Intuit
• Newsha Ajami, Director of Urban Water Policy at Stanford University

3:10-3:30pm Discussion break

3:30-4:10pm Career Panel moderated by Martina Lauchengco, Operating Partner and Board Member at Costanoa Ventures.

Panelists:

• Rukmini Iyer, Distinguished Engineer, Bing Advertising Marketplace & Serving, AI & Research, Microsoft
• ​Talithia Williams, Associate Dean, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd
• Denice Ross, Senior Fellow, National Conference on Citizenship Fellow, Georgetown University
• Lillian Carrasquillo, Insights Manager, Spotify

4:10-4:50pm Technical Vision Talks (livestream)

• Emily Glassberg Sands, head of data science at Coursera
• Been Kim, research scientist at Google Brain

4:50-5:30pm Closing remarks and networking reception