Thank You, Sponsors!

Describe what AE Business Solutions does, and how it relates to data science.

AEBS is a Wisconsin-based IT and workforce management company that helps organizations with their Network and Security, Data Center, and Business Intelligence/Analytics initiatives.

Our Business Intelligence and Analytics team helps organizations navigate the entire analytics journey, from data integration and warehousing to visualization and science. As the landscape of data and analytics has shifted towards data science, we assist organizations with developing, implementing, and maximizing their data science initiatives — regardless of where they are in the journey.

How is AEBS engaging with community around data science?

One of AE’s core values is to engage locally with our community, and we have in the last year started a foundation (AE Cares) dedicated to community service. For our analytics team, this has meant dedicating time to pro bono analytics work for non-profits in the Madison area in order to help them make better use of their data.

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

Connecting with other people and researchers in the area. The event has been an excellent way to meet passionate people who are excited to share their work.

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested you recently?

Broadly, it’s been very exciting to see an increased emphasis on model transparency and fairness in data science. Questions of ethics, bias, and fairness are becoming a standard topic in the lifecycle of a modeling project, which is leading to better work and better science.

More specifically, Jordan Ellenberg’s new book, Shape, was an excellent read for practitioners and anyone interested in the mathematics hidden behind everything we do.

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

We are excited to continue to support the growth of a data science community here within Madison!

Describe what Dataiku does, and how it relates to data science.

Dataiku is the platform for Everyday AI, systematizing the use of data for exceptional business results. Organizations that use Dataiku elevate their people (whether technical and working in code or on the business side with low- or no-code) to extraordinary, arming them with the ability to make better day-to-day decisions with data.

Dataiku was founded in 2013 and has been leading the charge in the democratization of AI ever since. Today, Dataiku is bridging the gap between the tensions present in today’s organizations so they don’t have to choose an AI strategy that addresses rationality or creativity, the individual or the collective, use cases that are mundane or moonshots — they can balance it all.

At its core, Dataiku allows companies to leverage one central solution to design, deploy, and manage AI and analytics applications. Dataiku also facilitates using prebuilt components and automation wherever possible to streamline work processes as well as consistent management and governance across teams and projects to create transparent, repeatable, and scalable AI and analytics programs.

How is Dataiku engaging with the community around data science?

Fostering the next generation of analytical talent! That’s what our Dataiku academic program is all about. We work hard to expand outreach and engagement in the education sector to support faculty, researchers, and students in our commitment to equip future data and analytics practitioners and leaders with the analytical skills highly sought by today’s employers.

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

We are excited to have the opportunity to highlight Dataiku and provide insight into our available resources including our free academy and workshops.

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested you recently?

Responsible AI. We often hear the term tossed out there, but Responsible AI is importance because it’s what will make organizations’ AI systems stand the test of time and ensure that they are not shattered by inevitable future developments in the space (like legislation, but also new technologies).

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

The Bazaar is a great opportunity to engage with a diverse group of students, faculty, researchers, and staff. Dataiku is proud to sponsor the Research Bazaar. Our free Academic Program exists to bring individuals, institutions, communities, and their data together to prepare everyone for college, career, and life. The Bazaar provides us with a tangible opportunity to engage with the community and support the next generation of analytical talent.

Describe what Snowflake does, and how it relates to data science.

Snowflake delivers the Data Cloud — a global network where thousands of organizations mobilize data with near-limited scale, concurrency, and performance. Inside the Data Cloud, organizations unite their siloed data, easily discover and securely share governed data, and execute diverse analytic workloads. Wherever data or users live, Snowflake delivers a single and seamless experience across multiple public clouds. Snowflake’s platform is the engine that powers and provides access to the Data Cloud, creating a solution for data warehousing, data lakes, data engineering, data science, data application development, and data sharing.

How is Snowflake engaging with community around data science?

Snowflake continues to change how data is leveraged for data science. By working with both public and private entities, Snowflake is enabling organizations to access any data, any time, and anywhere.

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

Getting a better understanding of how data science is being leveraged within the University and for University research projects.

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested you recently?

Data science is unlocking insights into data never seen before. Seeing how Snowflake is helping unlock data science insights within our customer base has been eye-opening.

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

Snowflake values its relationship with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UW-Madison is leading higher education in modernizing how data is leveraged to make decisions and provide insights to students, faculty, staff, and researchers. We are excited to be a partner with the University around its overall data strategy.

Describe what Tableau does, and how it relates to data science.

Tableau helps people see and understand data, and change the way they think about data. Tableau provides fast analytics so you can connect and visualize your data in minutes; it’s easy to use: anyone can analyze data with intuitive drag-and-drop products that don’t require any programming; you can explore just about any data with Tableau, from spreadsheets to databases to Hadoop to cloud services; it provides smart dashboards with multiple views of data for richer insight; Tableau updates your data automatically, and allows you to share your data quickly.

How is Tableau engaging with the community around data science?

In higher education, Tableau is unlocking the power of data to improve learning, fundraising, planning, and research. Hundreds of leading institutions use Tableau to analyze student enrollment, achievement, and demographics. Educational institutions are developing better alumni relations and streamlining educational reporting. In the classroom and in the lab, Tableau enriches the learning experience with analytics anyone can use and understand. Students are gaining access to increasingly valuable data literacy skills and educators are sharpening lesson plans while administrators discover the best opportunities to explore. Best of all, Tableau is free for active students and instructors. Discover what data can teach you.

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

We’re excited to connect with the 13 campuses within the UW System to better enable the community around how Tableau can solve educational use cases.

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested you recently?

Tableau’s CRM Einstein Discovery is powered by machine learning to deliver predictions and recommendations within Tableau workflows for smarter decision-making. Data scientists, analysts, and business users alike can create powerful predictive models without needing to write algorithms. Developed by Salesforce, Einstein Discovery offers an intuitive, no-code environment that empowers anyone to quickly and confidently make decisions guided by ethical, transparent AI in Tableau.

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

Tableau has been an integral part of the UW System since 2013. With over 100 Tableau Desktop power users, the data analytics platform has been a staple around campuses to gain insight in driving data-driven solutions.

Describe what the Department of Statistics does, and how it relates to data science.

Statistics is one of the core methods disciplines of data science, tracing the connection back over 60 years. Statistics is known as the “science of science” or the mathematical basis for experimental research.

How does the Department of Statistics engage with community around data science?

Many of our faculty and students conduct data science research, both in terms of developing new methods and applying them in innovative ways through collaborative team research in a wide variety of fields. Statistical consulting is an important type of data science facilitation aimed to build researcher capacity for design, inference, and interpretation.

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

Learning about new types of data and data-rich research. Developing new, and expanding on existing, collaborations with researchers and units across campus and beyond.

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested you recently?

A current challenge is bringing data at scale from the research setting into the classroom as a way of enhancing the learning experience for students. This involves pedagogy, technology, and communication about cutting-edge approaches.

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

Statistics is part of the School for Computer, Data, and Information Sciences, and has fostered leadership in data science for quite some time. Data are everywhere, and learning how to use statistical methods to design and interpret effective and ethical studies is central to building our campus data science community through such an important annual event.

Describe what the Division of Information Technology does, and how it relates to data science.

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) runs the foundational IT infrastructure for the University, including the network and cybersecurity infrastructure. This enables data science and the specialized technology work done in research groups. As the amount of data science grows it is essential that the University’s infrastructure scale to meet the demands of big data and emerging science.

How is DoIT engaging with the community around data science?

Our Research Cyberinfrastructure group operates an RStudio platform that can be used by data scientists in all disciplinary areas. We also help data scientists build architectures in the public cloud that support their data, analysis, and visualization workflows. We also participate as trainers in the Data and Software Carpentry workshops on campus.

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

It is a great opportunity for those of us in the information technology community to hear data scientists talk about how they are using data science methods to answer questions in their disciplinary areas. It is amazing how similar approaches can help us understand very different phenomena in the physical, life, and social sciences.

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested your recently?

So many things! The possibilities seem endless. For example, data science will enable personalized medicine, allowing each of us to receive care that is specific to our bodies and needs. It is enabling social determinants of health, understanding elements in our communities that impact the health and wellbeing of people. Data science is allowing us to understand climate change and impact in more depth than ever before. Data science allows us to understand more quickly when learners need help understanding a concept, well before a midterm or final exam when it may be too late to provide meaningful help.

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

UW-Madison is at the forefront of data science. Bringing people together to share ideas sparks even more innovation. We’re glad to be a small part of helping that to happen.

Describe what the UW-Madison Libraries do, and how it relates to data science.

If you’re a member of the UW-Madison community, it’s likely you’ve already seen our work in action. You’ve probably worked in one of our campus libraries, accessed an article from a database or an e-book, or maybe you’ve checked out some of the really cool items in Special Collections. In short, the Libraries help support the research and teaching missions of our University, and that includes data science, too!

How are the Libraries engaging with community around data science?

The Libraries host workshops on R & Python, provide access to the Clarivate Web of Science Dataset, and offer access to tools like Gale Digital Scholar Lab and HathiTrust Research Center. You can also find blog posts on various topics, such as data ethics, on the Research Data Services website. We also love to work on activities with our awesome campus partners, like the Data Science Institute and the Data Science Hub, among others!

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

This year’s theme, “Data & Communities: Sharing & Protecting Data” is something the Libraries talk about a lot. While we believe that openly sharing data, among other scholarly outputs, is critical to enabling more equitable access and accelerating discovery, we also believe that we need to be careful and ethical in doing so. We are so excited to hear about all the presenters’ thoughts, ideas, and projects related to this year’s theme!

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested you recently?

Text data mining has been on our radar a lot over the past year. We recognize that the collections within our subscription databases and other vendor products hold much potential value for our campus researchers. We are currently exploring future directions that can help us better facilitate and empower this work.

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

Every year, the Data Science Research Bazaar is such a great event for bringing people together and building more connections, whether those are cross-campus connections or connections with community partners. It also continues to be such a fun way to learn about projects on campus and off, as well as a wonderful way to gain practical skills through the workshops and sessions. We are thrilled to sponsor it again this year.

Describe what WARF does, and how it relates to data science.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) is the nonprofit organization charged with protecting and commercializing intellectual property developed by UW-Madison researchers. For more than 95 years we have partnered with the University to advance emerging technologies, from agricultural breakthroughs to multidisciplinary innovations in computer and data science across all fields. WARF’s mission is to support scientific research within the UW-Madison community by providing financial support, actively managing assets and moving innovations to the marketplace for a financial return and global impact. These funds not only help support research but help maintain a strong university overall. WARF funding helps UW-Madison recruit and retain faculty, fund campus infrastructure and support entrepreneurship and innovation.

As part of our commercialization efforts, we interface with industrial partners looking not only for cutting-edge technology, but also for particular skills and assets that campus can provide. We work closely with our researchers and UW administrative counterparts to help find creative ways to bring University research to market, and data licensing is one such avenue. We are seeking researchers who have data sets that may be commercially interesting to have a discussion around data licensing.

How is WARF engaging with the community around data science?

WARF works with UW-Madison faculty, staff, and students to help drive their data science innovations towards realization. While we see inventions and software innovations, we are also looking to engage more with the community who may be creating, compiling, or leveraging data in unique ways.

WARF is also thrilled to support Varsity Venture Studio (the first campus-wide venture studio of its kind) that is working to turn ideas into funded software businesses. Moreover, to engage the broader community, our outreach team spearheads the annual Wisconsin Science Festival and other events to bring STEM programming into hundreds of homes and classrooms throughout the state. These are our future data scientists!

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

We are always eager to learn about cutting-edge, innovative research, even if it falls outside of the traditional patenting path. Researchers with any questions about commercialization shouldn’t hesitate to reach out to a WARF contact.

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested you recently?

We know that data has become the keystone for fields across many different disciplines. We are excited to explore new and creative ways that data is being leveraged to power innovation. In particular, machine learning and AI are drawing the attention of industry and researchers, and leading to amazing innovation. No matter what stage your research is in, we’d be happy to discuss if intellectual property protection or other protection strategies are available for researchers’ work.

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

We’re pleased to support this inclusive event and participate in growing a dynamic community around data science innovation. Over the last decade, WARF has reviewed many new technologies from researchers across a broad spectrum of fields. It’s possible we’ll see new opportunities presented at this event, which if commercialized can help support the university and future research endeavors.

Describe what the Wisconsin School of Business Master’s of Business Analytics Program does, and how it relates to data science.

The Wisconsin School of Business Master’s of Business Analytics (MSBA) Program teaches students to harness the power of data to address complex business questions and contribute strategic insights in any industry.

How is the MSBA Program engaging with community around data science?

We work in the community to forge relationship with data science industry, professionals, and graduate students who are prepared to contribute to the community as well.

What is something you’re looking forward to at the Data Science Research Bazaar?

We are looking forward to having our students interact with the research community around data science and helping spread the Wisconsin Idea into the community.

Why is sponsoring the Data Science Research Bazaar important to you?

It is important to Schools and Colleges at the University to connect with the community and it is a privilege to help make the Research Bazaar a reality.

What is something data science-related that has excited or interested you recently?

We have been excited about the push for transparency in the field of data science and analytics. As technology and machine learning models become more sophisticated and automated, it is critical that we can understand and audit how these are working. They could have unforeseen, negative societal impacts.