QU Kindi centre supports ‘Women in Data Science’ conference

Kindi Centre for Computing Research (Kindi) at Qatar University College of Engineering (QU-CENG) has supported the “Women in Data Science” conference.Organised by ArabWIC Qatar in collaboration with WiDS Stanford University and sponsored by QCRI, it was part of the Global Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference 2017, held at Stanford University and live-streamed by Kindi. Around 14 students from QU participated in the event. QU computing masters student Alaa Moosa, and research assistant and computing masters student Wafa Waheeda contributed in the organisation of the event. The event included three tracks “Learn”, “Engage” and “Inspire”. The first track “Learn” covered introductory workshops focusing on visualisation and classification projects related to data science. CENG research assistants and computing masters students Rachael Fernandaz and Wafa Waheeda led these workshops. At the “Engage” track, students presented posters showcasing about seven data science projects of participants from QU, HBKU and QCRI. QU student Reem Suwaileh and Maram Hasanian won the first place, while Hind Almerekhi from QCRI won the third place. Kindi assistant research Prof Dr Abdullatif Shikfa was among the panel of judges who evaluated the poster contest. The “Inspire” track featured speakers from various organisations. They delivered technical talks on data science topics such as data visualisation, machine learning, Internet of Things, and crimes of future. Speakers included QU Kindi Centre for Computing Research director Dr Noora Fetais.CENG dean Dr Khalifa al-Khalifa said “CENG’s support of WiDs comes as a part of its role in advancing local and international initiatives that promote technology innovation and engineering among women, and that motivate CENG students to undertake leading positions in such events.