PyData Triangle July 2020 Meetup

PyData Triangle welcomes you to another exciting event.

This will be an online event. You must RSVP to this meetup event by noon July 1 in order to receive the Zoom URL.

Speakers:
• Susan Eversole, MS, PMP: Data Governance and compliance with the Open Government Data Act
• Gregory Herschlag, PhD: Quantifying Gerrymandering: Algorithmic Advances and the Need for Open Source Software

YOU: Lightning Talks
• Sign-up for a 5 minute lightning talk slot at the meeting by posting in the chat. Or pre-sign-up by posting a comment into this announcement.

Schedule:
6:00-6:15 announcements
6:15-7:15 Susan Eversole
7:15-8:15 Greg Herschlag
8:15-8:30 Lightning talks

The PyData code of conduct ( http://pydata.org/code-of-conduct.html ) is enforced at this Meetup. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the meetup at the sole discretion of the meetup organizer.

Propose a presentation or speaker for a future PyData Triangle meetup. Contact any of the organizers, Alice Broadhead, Gene Ferruzza, or Mark Hutchinson through meetup messages.

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Presenter: Susan Eversole, MS, PMP
Susan is a senior technology manager with more than 30 years of experience in data management and governance. Her relevant project work at RTI includes data mgt. and strategy consulting for the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) and the federal Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA). She developed a data governance framework for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) BioData Catalyst Coordinating Center.

Presentation Overview:
In January, 2019, the new a new Federal law was passed that affects every scientific agency within the federal government. This relatively new law, the ‘‘Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018,’’ (Public Law 115-435), stipulates, among other requirements, that governmental agencies “develop and maintain a strategic information resources management plan” provide the impetus for improved federal data governance. The new legislation is significant in that it mandates that it includes the Open Government Data Act as Title II. The open data proposal will require federal agencies to publish their information online, using machine-readable data formats.

Along with the Federal Data Governance Strategy, these new initiatives and laws require that federally funded scientific data collection agencies maintain, and publish, a comprehensive data inventory of all data assets within the next 2 years, and to develop data governance strategies complying with the new Open Government Data Act.

This talk will brush on the theory behind data governance as opposed to data management, and describe the tools needed to support these efforts.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • -
                                                      Presenter: Gregory Herschlag, PhD
                                                      Gregory Herschlag received his Ph.D. in mathematics from UNC Chapel Hill in 2013. Since then, he has been in a research position at Duke University in the Department of Mathematics. He began working with Jonathan Mattingly on algorithms to quantify gerrymandering in 2016; within this collaboration, Greg has analyzed and quantified gerrymandering in the NC congressional districts, the WI general assembly, and the NC legislature.

Presentation Overview:
Gerrymandered political districts steal political power and dilute votes. Although we have seen increasingly precise and effective gerrymanders, over many decades the courts have not intervened. Recently, however, a novel method to quantify and understand gerrymandering has emerged that has found traction in the courts. Our solution steps create rich algorithms in the fields of applied mathematics (sampling theory) and data analysis, respectively.

In this talk I will begin by demonstrating how our research group at Duke has tackled these data analysis questions and, in particular, how our analysis was effectively communicated through expert testimony.