Sydney Students Get a Sneak Peek at What a Career in Data Science Looks Like

PEOPLE

We live in a world that is more data-driven than ever before. That means we need many more students to take up careers in data science. But what does a career in data science look like?

Some high school students in the Sydney area got to find out, thanks to the third annual Data Science Work Experience program hosted by ACEMS at UNSW.

“It’s so important to get students excited about Data Science so they will pursue it further at University, and hopefully as a career,” says Professor Scott Sisson, ACEMS Deputy Director and Head of Statistics at UNSW.

This year, 19 Year 10 students from 10 different schools attended the seven-day workshop at UNSW for their work experience.

“The diversity of students attending, including an even-split between boys and girls, shows that data science as a career is for everyone who has a passion for it,” says Scott.

For the first five days, professors, lecturers, postdocs and PhD students from ACEMS and UNSW introduced the students to various statistical concepts. The students also learnt the statistical and data-science software R (and its working environment, RStudio) and were taught how to automatically generate a document or report in RStudio using the R Markdown language. That allowed them to merge code, summarise data, and interpret and present the results in a single document.

“Along with Python, R is in the top two coding languages for Data Science, and many university programs in Data Science and Statistics use them both. Hopefully this early exposure to R will give everyone who attended a head start in their careers,” says Scott.

The remaining two days focused on group work where the students were given a real data set with a question to answer.  The task was to explore, visualise, and analyse the data, extract valuable information, and then provide a report of their findings. Four groups then presented their work to a large audience from UNSW’s School of Mathematics and Statistics and School of Economics. They answered tough questions from the audience.

“The teams did really well presenting their findings and defending their analyses under questioning. If they continue to develop their data science skills, they will do extremely well in their future studies and careers,” says Scott.

No doubt, one of the highlights of the program was over the extended lunch break, where students enjoyed the Virtual Reality laboratory. Here the students were introduced to interactive data visualisation elements and the manipulation of information in a 3D virtual environment.

 

Click the image above to watch the Data Camp Video.

The numbers attending this Work Experience event have grown for the past three years. ACEMS and UNSW say they want to continue to grow the program, and hope that others will come to understand the importance of data science.

“Extracting meaning and useful information from large and complex datasets – the essential role of the data scientist – is one of the most in-demand skill sets going into the foreseeable future. Students can be sure of a bright, secure and portable future career if they invest now in mathematical, statistical and computer science skills,” says Scott.

For the students, it was a special opportunity to have access to these mathematicians and statisticians, who gave up their time to show them what data science is all about. Hopefully, they got excited to move forward in data science, and will get others to consider it as well.