From reducing the unnecessary use of energy to coming up with a coherent system for artificial intelligence in hospitals: during the Dutch Data Science Week, data scientists will develop smart solutions to social challenges. The second edition will take place from May 25th to June 1st.
The Dutch Data Science Week (DDSW) is a GoDataDriven and SAS initiative and this year’s theme is “the impact of data science on society.” Based on social challenges, DDSW wants to give an impulse to knowledge development and the sharing of knowledge within data science. One of the main events during the week are the hackathons in which data scientists will come up with concrete solutions to challenges in the fields of sustainability, health, and society.’
“The value of data becomes visible through a concrete application,” DDSW organizer Walter van der Scheer says. “Within DDSW, we enable data scientists to put their knowledge to use towards a social objective. In the end, it’s our ambition to really contribute something to societal improvements using data at the close of the week.”‘
Saving energy
Energy supplier’Eneco is organizing a hackathon. “We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to use energy in a sustainable way. Data holds an important key to this. During DDSW, data scientists are given the opportunity to develop smart appliances that will enable the reduction of unnecessary energy use with the help of data,” says Ronald Root, Senior Data Driven Business Developer & Privacy Officer for Eneco.’
Data-driven hospitals
The University Medical Center Groningen is also organizing a hackathon. Pim van der Harst, professor of Intervention and translational cardiology, “We are on the threshold of data-driven healthcare. You see more and more specific applications for the organization, diagnostics or treatment of patients.”‘
“Even though a hospital with a cohesive AI system that optimizes the organization and care doesn’t exist yet, it’s no longer to question if it will happen, but who will deliver it and when. By organizing a hackathon during DDSW, we hope to speed up this process.”‘
A cleaner city
The municipality of Amsterdam hopes that their hackathon will deliver new ideas to make the city more livable. Alderman Udo Kock (Economic affairs): “We’re only at the start of the use of image recognition in, for example, keeping the city clean. If we can recognize waste on the streets with the help of cameras, we can clean it up before the people of Amsterdam are bothered by it. During Dutch Data Science Week, we hope that data scientists will develop solutions with our open data, in which man and machine can work together to benefit the people of Amsterdam without violating their privacy”.’
Conferences and meetups
In addition to the hackathons, two conferences will also be held. At PyData Amsterdam, from May 25th through 27th, users and developers of data analysis tools share knowledge and insights. The SAS Data & Analytics day on May 31st is about developments and trends in the field of data analytics and artificial intelligence.’
Furthermore, this week consists of various meetups geared towards practical and data-driven use cases, blockchain and cloud technology, such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.’
Dutch Data Science Week takes place this year from 25 May to 1 June. Want to take part? See the entire program on’https://dutchdatascienceweek.nl.’
