UPDATED 14:00 EDT / MARCH 11 2019

BIG DATA

WiDS Datathon mixes up data science with collaborative teams

If only a data set and some pre-packaged data-analytics software were all it takes to solve real-world problems. The reality is that tools require hands to ply them. And just like a comprehensive data set is better than a limited one, a comprehensive set of skills helps people design better solutions.

“Looking at the problem from different perspectives and collaboration are the keys to be able to be successful in data science,” said Srujana Kaddevarmuth (pictured), data science and analytics executive at Accenture LLP and ambassador for the Women in Machine Learning & Data Science team in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore).

Take a problem like deforestation from palm-oil plantations. Consider all the factors that might be involved: agriculture, climate, ecology, economics, politics, etc. What are the odds that one random data expert can ask all the right questions, pull together all the necessary data, and derive actionable insight? Probably not great.

This is the thinking behind collaborative data-science projects, like the Women in Data Science, or WiDS, Datathon. This year, it organized several teams to collaborate and use data and satellite imagery to analyze this particular problem.

Kaddevarmuth spoke with Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Stanford Women in Data Science event in Stanford, California. They discussed this year’s Datathon and why collaboration results in better outcomes for data scientists.

From clueless to Kaggle code in three weeks

At the WiDS Bengaluru regional event, organizers set up a community workshop. The goal was to form teams to participate in the Datathon. They would submit the fruits of their endeavors to something called Kaggle, a platform for data-science projects and competitions. In India, Kaggle participation is very male heavy “despite that region having amazing female data scientists who are innovators in their space with multiple patents, publications and innovations to their credit,” Kaddevarmuth said.

WiDS teamed mentors with participating teams to work together for three weeks. One team from the engineering division who was brand new to Kaggle learned new concepts, honed skills in deep learning and neural networks, and submitted original code to the Kaggle leaderboard.

“They were not the top-scoring team, but this entire experience of being able to collaborate, look at the problem from different perspectives, and be able to submit the code despite a lot of these challenges — and also navigate the platform in itself — was a decent achievement from my perspective,” Kaddevarmuth concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Stanford Women in Data Science event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU