MONTHLY EDITION
January Edition: A Better World Awaits
Happy New Year and welcome to 2021!
For our first monthly edition of the new year, we want to share some of our favorite picks from the newest column on Towards Data Science: Data for Change.
Amidst the turmoil and heartbreak of 2020, the narrative around big data was redefined. Our focus shifted from personal gain to how we can use data science for the good of people everywhere. This year, we saw more articles than ever before about using data science and machine learning to model pandemics, predict wildfires, uncover racial discrimination in our institutions and more.
Our team of editors has truly enjoyed exploring and learning from these pieces. By dedicating a column to this topic and casting a greater spotlight onto these stories, we hope to further one of our core beliefs at TDS: that data science can provide insight into urgent social, environmental, and political challenges. Hopefully, the selection below will enrich and expand your understanding of how we can apply data science tools for social good.
How will you use your skills to make this world a better place in 2021? We can’t wait to add your contribution to this column!
Elliot Gunn and Linda Chen, Editors at Towards Data Science.
Data Science for Social Good
By Ioana Spanache, PhD — 6 min read
Going beyond what type of movies we want to see to what type of world we want to live in. Resources, examples, and opportunities for doing data science for social good.
Racial disparities in police stops and searches
By Disha Kewalramani — 9 min read
Statistical analysis of police stops and searches over the years to identify if the police force is biased against minority groups.
A Closer Look at the Biomass Burned in California’s Wildfires
By Lauren Low — 7 min read
Comparing tree species and biomass data from UC Santa Cruz’s ForestGEO site to wildfires — like the one just northwest of Santa Cruz proper. Here’s what we found.
Modeling the spread of a pandemic
By Rakesh Chintha — 20 min read
How do scientists model an epidemic? How does the government come up with lockdown plans? How do we know if we flattened the curve already?
COVID19: Visualising the Impact of Social Distancing in Python
By Adarsh Menon — 6 min read
The exponential impact a single person can have on flattening the curve visualised using pandas and matplotlib in python.
The Impacts of COVID-19 on the Academic Achievement Gap
By Barnett Yang — 21 min read
With the COVID-19 pandemic placing the U.S. economy in turmoil, how could decreasing economic prospects along racial lines impact the academic achievement gap?
Optimizing Ambulance Response Time Using Uber Movement Data
By Taha Bouhoun — 7 min read
A Monte Carlo Simulation to evaluate the change in infrastructure on ambulance response time (Case Study of the London Tower Bridge).
Feeling Depressed to Feeling Suicidal
By Eunjoo Byeon — 7 min read
Identifying some of the key factors that attribute to the progression of depressive symptoms using multiple linear regression.
How should students spend their time to improve their happiness?
By Chan Min Yi — 7 min read
How do time spending on different aspects of our lives influence our happiness levels? An analysis of survey data using Jupyter Notebook.
New podcasts
- Rob Miles — Why should I care about AI safety?
- Ben Goertzel — The unorthodox path to AGI
- Nicolai Baldin — AI meets the law: Bias, fairness, privacy and regulation
- Geordie Rose — Will AGI need to be embodied?
New videos
- Evaluating linear relationships | Emily A. Halford
- Spatial Data Analysis: Cell Declustering | Fouad Faraj
- A Classification Model For Source Code Languages From Scratch | Amal Hasni & Dhia Hmila
We also thank all the great new writers who joined us recently Marie Coolsaet, Joe Kennedy, Osasona Ifeoluwa, Jonah Kanner, Leah Pope, Alina Zhang, Linda Wehrstein, Shubham Pathania, Guillermina Sutter Schneider, Farsim Hossain, Barnett Yang, Rahul D. Ghosal, Marco Susilo, Marc Nehme, Nathan Pratt, Dr. Amanda J. Cheney, Darci Taylor, German Osin, Daniel Saunders, Eram Munawwar, Arnab Borah, Julia Qiao, Sam Starkman, Amichaud Romain, Naser Tamimi, Efe Buyuk and many others. We invite you to take a look at their profiles and check out their work.
