Data Science for Good: A New Type of Datathon

The vast majority of information on Data Science is most likely associated with the private sector, like tech companies, and programming skills to address corporate goals. However, globally, we have been facing multiple social challenges, such as climate crisis, clean energy, wildlife conservation, sustainable growing cities and many others.

In fact, the United Nations has a section on its website dedicated to ‘Big Data for Sustainable Development’ [1]. Similar Data Science techniques can help gain real-time insights into people’s lives and wellbeing and target to aid interventions to vulnerable groups. Modern sources of data (e.g. satellite data), new technologies, and new analytical approaches, when applied responsibly, can make evidence-based decision-making more agile and efficient. Also, it can measure progress on the Sustainable Development Goals in a way that is both fair and inclusive [2]. Overall, there is a massive opportunity to use Data Science for good.

What is the World Data League?

The World Data League (WDL) is a recently formed team that works in the data field and wants to see the real impact of data science on social problems. They believe in communities’ power and that it is possible to achieve significant results when data professionals work together to improve the world.

They have experience creating technical and non-technical communities, organising memorable events for the technical community, and particular competitions. Their goal is to create a global community of data scientists that compete to solve social-oriented problems together [3]. The WDL has four key pillars driving their socially driven purpose:

Global perspective. They believe that intellectual diversity is paramount to solving global issues. There is no such thing as age, nationality, gender or race; we should only focus on solutions.
Support for Data Scientists. The data field is growing and evolving every day, and the WDL wants to contribute to Data Scientists’ development as they contribute to solving social issues.
No bullshit policy. Solving social problems must be detached from politics, selling products and other commercially driven goals. Every outcome will become publicly available.
Work as a league. WDL’s mission is to find and crown the world’s best data scientist. They will do so by launching competitions to solve social-oriented problems.

How does it work?

The competition is divided into six phases. Each team should have three to four members. Also, each team should have either one nationality or be a totally international team. The application phase is already open and will close on the 15th of March.

Then, from the 16th to the 30th of March, the selection phase takes place. The WDL competition requires a minimum technical experience, consisting of basic Programming and data science skills). They will select a maximum of 50 teams.

Following the selection phase, the league starts and will run from the 1st of April to the 31st of May. They will select a topic (a social challenge) divided into four sub-areas, each of which becomes a new stage of the competition. Teams will have two weeks per stage and will be allowed to submit only one proposal at a time. The WDL keeps track of scores and will update the leaderboard at the end of each stage.

After the intense sequence of challenges, the WDL will wrap-up and announce the top-10 finalists. From the 15th to the 17th of July (a three-day event), the finalists will compete to solve a single social problem. In August, they will announce the winner and make all the results, data and codes open-source.

What’s in it for me?

Well, a lot. First and foremost, you will have the opportunity to make a global impact on major social issues. As a result, you will help save lives and support our environment as well as future generations. Second, there is a series of prizes:

Ready to apply?

Check out their website for more details and how to apply. The first challenge is about Data-driven cities. According to the UN, 68% of the world population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050 [4]. The goal is to help achieve the 11th UN Sustainable Goal – Sustainable Cities and Communities [5].

Conclusion

The consistent and increasing growth of Data Science brings many opportunity and skilled professionals. However, most of the effort and data has been directed towards the private sector. The World Data League brings a fresh perspective to data professionals by launching an exciting competition to drive global change. As a data and tech enthusiast, you will have the chance to work on real-life data and solve social problems: in this first instance, you and your team members will focus on sustainable cities. So, whether you are an experienced data professional or just switching your career to data science, this is the opportunity you have been looking for to stand out and make a significant social impact.

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