Celebrating Women in Data Science

| MSNE Staff

A sign welcoming WiDS visitors, including logos of 2019 WiDS sponsors like Microsoft, Wayfair, and numerous others.

Data scientist is the fastest growing job in the United States, according to LinkedIn. Here at Microsoft, we understand the value of that opportunity, investing in data science programs for our teams, offering MCSA certification in data science, and sponsoring and collaborating with the Women in Data Science (WiDS) conference each year, hosted at Stanford University and nearly 150 regional events worldwide.

The WiDS conference centers around educating and inspiring data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender. We’re happy to host one of those regional events, WiDS Cambridge, at the Microsoft NERD Center in partnership with Harvard University and MIT.

A data scientist at WiDS Cambridge explains a poster presentation to an attendee.
Photo by Dana J. Quigley. www.danajquigleyphoto.com

This year’s conference, hosted on March 4, featured speakers, seminars, and poster presentations on hot-button issues in data science, ranging from data ethics and privacy to cybersecurity to data visualization, and more.

 “I wanted to learn more and network,” attendee Jennifer Legere, a graduate student from the University of New Hampshire’s analytics and data science program, told us. New England’s data science community, she said, stands out due to its “availability of jobs and schools. Not a lot of programs offer data science.”

Legere’s colleague Jessica Hammond said, “I appreciate the diversity. It’s great to see a lot of women that care about data.”

Decorative — Logo promoting Women in Data Science podcast

Recently, WiDS featured our very own Jennifer Chayes, technical fellow and managing director at Microsoft Research, on their Women in Data Science podcast. The episode explores Chayes’ expertise in data science, focusing on building algorithms with Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE). Listen to the podcast here — and be sure to tune in to season two of the podcast, available now.

See Microsoft’s career openings in data science here.

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