Data Science in Action: TBDSG Standard Meeting

Tampa Bay Data Scientists!

The intent of this meeting is to bring together people in the Tampa Bay and surrounding areas involved or interested in data science or related professions.

We are extremely privileged to have two distinguished presenters for this April meeting: Dr. Loni Hagen and Dr. Jack Sawilowsky.

Dr. Jack Sawilowsky is a data scientist (formerly called “statistician”) at Citigroup where he helps optimize global security and fraud operations as a business analyst. His favorite tools are R, SAS, and Excel. He is originally from the metro Detroit, MI tri-county area and earned his graduate degrees from Wayne State University. His undergraduate is from Michigan State University in Lansing, MI. Jack has lived in the beautiful city of Tampa, FL for one and a half years and enjoys playing volleyball, kayaking in St. Pete and walking along Bayshore Blvd.

Abstract: Data science practitioners come from diverse backgrounds. They can be very intelligent, well educated, and accomplished. One component of data science is argued to be vital to success regardless of other impressive qualifications: the field of statistics. A Monte Carlo simulation is conducted in the R programming language to demonstrate the statistical concepts of probability and independence.

Dr. Loni Hagen is an assistant professor at the University of South Florida. Her current research interests are in use of data mining for policy decision-making in the domains of health emergency communication, e-participation, privacy, and cybersecurity.

Abstract: We conducted content analyses and network analyses to investigate themes and influential Twitterers during the Zika virus outbreak in US. As a result of our content analyses, we found six predominant themes communicated in Zika tweets: (1) the spread of Zika, (2) criticism of government responses, (3) symptoms of Zika, (4) scientific news about Zika, (5) bee killing incidents in South Carolina, and (6) government outreach efforts. Text mining results supported these topics to some extent. We also identified three types of primary Twitterers within the Zika conversation: (1) the Senator Rubio community, (2) authoritative institutions, and (3) boundary spanners. We provide a detailed synthesis and discussion of these results and draw practical implications for the use of social media in public health emergencies.

Please come, enjoy, and help us build this community!