[Pols-announce] How to Get a Job During the Pandemic

Mon Mar 15 13:14:30 CDT 2021

FYI…grad students

From: Ginther, Donna K <dginther at ku.edu>

Subject: Re: Updates on data science certificate and other news

Greetings—

The Economics Department is holding a seminar on Wednesday afternoon that may be of interest to your data science students.  Jen Boden is my former PhD student who just took a data science industry job.  Chad Montgomery is a recruiter for IT/data science positions.

Please feel free to share this information.

Best regards,

donna

Dear all,
Please join this week’s guest speaker seminar on Wednesday starting at 3:30 pm. Note that this Zoom meeting will be password-protected (password: 2021). Ph.D. students are encouraged to attend. This seminar will also count for Econ 910.

Spring 2021 Guest Speaker Seminar

Chad Montgomery (ECCO Select) and Jen Boden (KU Alumnus)
will present:
How to Get a Job During the Pandemic
March 17 @ 3:30 pm via Zoom
https://kansas.zoom.us/j/98120044055

Meeting ID: 981-2004-4055
Meeting Password: 2021

On Mar 11, 2021, at 7:37 AM, Pleskac, Tim <pleskac at ku.edu<mailto:pleskac at ku.edu>> wrote:

Thanks David. Good idea! I will add this later this morning.

From: Slusky, David <david.slusky at ku.edu<mailto:david.slusky at ku.edu>>
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 6:19 PM
To: Lamb, Jonathan <jonathanplamb at ku.edu<mailto:jonathanplamb at ku.edu>>
Cc: Pleskac, Tim <pleskac at ku.edu<mailto:pleskac at ku.edu>>, Vitevitch, Michael S <mvitevit at ku.edu<mailto:mvitevit at ku.edu>>, Ginther, Donna K <dginther at ku.edu<mailto:dginther at ku.edu>>, Kim, ChangHwan <chkim at ku.edu<mailto:chkim at ku.edu>>, Haider-Markel, Donald Patrick <dhmarkel at ku.edu<mailto:dhmarkel at ku.edu>>, Holder, Mark Travis <mtholder at ku.edu<mailto:mtholder at ku.edu>>, Branicky, Michael S <m954b923 at ku.edu<mailto:m954b923 at ku.edu>>, Niileksela, Christopher <chrisn at ku.edu<mailto:chrisn at ku.edu>>, Parsaeian, Shahnaz <sh.parsaeian at ku.edu<mailto:sh.parsaeian at ku.edu>>, Girard, Jeffrey <jmgirard at ku.edu<mailto:jmgirard at ku.edu>>, Jung, Jiin <jiin.jung at ku.edu<mailto:jiin.jung at ku.edu>>
Subject: Re: Updates on data science certificate and other news
Hi all,

I made some edits in the document to explicitly reference the three other certificate programs being referred to in engineering, journalism, and edwards and that they are actually all at the graduate level and therefore not comparable.

I also edited the point on the business one (which I can't find at https://business.ku.edu/undergraduate-programs/degree-programs/business-analytics or https://business.ku.edu/undergraduate-programs/degree-programs) to make it clear that our program is open to the whole university.

(Tim - if you have the link handy it'd be good to add it so we're all on the same page.)

Let me know if any of you has any questions.

David

David Slusky
De-Min and Chin-Sha Wu Associate Professor
Associate Chair & Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Economics
University of Kansas
www.slusky.ku.edu<http://www.slusky.ku.edu/>
@DavidSlusky
<https://twitter.com/davidslusky>

On Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 3:38 PM Lamb, Jonathan <jonathanplamb at ku.edu<mailto:jonathanplamb at ku.edu>> wrote:
Yes, I have talked with someone in Math who says they have been putting plans in motion for a data science certificate. Their preliminary plan is/was to focus on high-level coursework on things like linear algebra and stats, etc., rather than software implementation. Honestly, I think that’s a tough sell as a certificate, and it will be difficult to attract students.

Jon

From: "Pleskac, Tim" <pleskac at ku.edu<mailto:pleskac at ku.edu>>
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 3:11 PM
To: "Vitevitch, Michael S" <mvitevit at ku.edu<mailto:mvitevit at ku.edu>>, "Ginther, Donna K" <dginther at ku.edu<mailto:dginther at ku.edu>>, "Kim, ChangHwan" <chkim at ku.edu<mailto:chkim at ku.edu>>, "jonathanplamb at ku.edu<mailto:jonathanplamb at ku.edu>" <jonathanplamb at ku.edu<mailto:jonathanplamb at ku.edu>>, "Haider-Markel, Donald Patrick" <dhmarkel at ku.edu<mailto:dhmarkel at ku.edu>>, "Holder, Mark Travis" <mtholder at ku.edu<mailto:mtholder at ku.edu>>, "Branicky, Michael S" <m954b923 at ku.edu<mailto:m954b923 at ku.edu>>, "Niileksela, Christopher" <chrisn at ku.edu<mailto:chrisn at ku.edu>>, "Slusky, David" <david.slusky at ku.edu<mailto:david.slusky at ku.edu>>, "Parsaeian, Shahnaz" <sh.parsaeian at ku.edu<mailto:sh.parsaeian at ku.edu>>, "Girard, Jeffrey" <jmgirard at ku.edu<mailto:jmgirard at ku.edu>>, "Jung, Jiin" <jiin.jung at ku.edu<mailto:jiin.jung at ku.edu>>
Subject: Re: Updates on data science certificate and other news

Hello – I have drafted some text to send to the Dean’s office to hopefully prepare the dean’s office for the discussion with the provost’s office about the need for a data science certificate in the college. If you have a chance, please have a look and see what you think and offer edits or suggestions. See link below.  Also Jon Lamb told me that Math is talking about trying to put together a data science effort so I will reach out to them to see if they want to join in our fun.

I hope to send the memo to the dean next Monday so please get edits and comments to me before then.

Tim

https://kansas-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/t926p838_home_ku_edu/EeifYQc72wBJuXr565_vziABSFniRfFKk-1VOHWT91_QHg?e=a9wG4b

From: Pleskac, Tim <pleskac at ku.edu<mailto:pleskac at ku.edu>>
Date: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 10:21 AM
To: Vitevitch, Michael S <mvitevit at ku.edu<mailto:mvitevit at ku.edu>>, Ginther, Donna K <dginther at ku.edu<mailto:dginther at ku.edu>>, Kim, ChangHwan <chkim at ku.edu<mailto:chkim at ku.edu>>, Lamb, Jonathan <jonathanplamb at ku.edu<mailto:jonathanplamb at ku.edu>>, Haider-Markel, Donald Patrick <dhmarkel at ku.edu<mailto:dhmarkel at ku.edu>>, Holder, Mark Travis <mtholder at ku.edu<mailto:mtholder at ku.edu>>, Branicky, Michael S <m954b923 at ku.edu<mailto:m954b923 at ku.edu>>, Niileksela, Christopher <chrisn at ku.edu<mailto:chrisn at ku.edu>>, Slusky, David <david.slusky at ku.edu<mailto:david.slusky at ku.edu>>, Parsaeian, Shahnaz <sh.parsaeian at ku.edu<mailto:sh.parsaeian at ku.edu>>, Girard, Jeffrey <jmgirard at ku.edu<mailto:jmgirard at ku.edu>>, Jung, Jiin <jiin.jung at ku.edu<mailto:jiin.jung at ku.edu>>
Subject: Updates on data science certificate and other news
Hi all – I wanted to update you on where the data science certificate is, bring up the possibility of submitting a NRT training proposal (submission fall 2021), and some other news.

I am also including 3 new names on this email: Chris Niileksela from Education (https://epsy.ku.edu/chris-niileksela);  Shahnaz Parsaeian from Econ (https://economics.ku.edu/shahnaz-parsaeian ) and David Slusky from Econ (https://economics.ku.edu/david-slusky ). If you are on this email and want me to not include you in this list, no problem just let me know. Below are some updates:

# Data Science Certificate
The application landed in the provosts office on Feb 10. I was in contact with Jean Redeker last Friday 2/26 and she told me the following information/concerns

 KU has data science/data interpretation programs at the UG and GR level (degrees, certificates, minors)  in the Business School, in Engineering, in Journalism, at KUEC with the MS in Applied Statistics and Analytics, and another school at KU is also discussing adding a program in this area.

Duplication may be appropriate, but that is a discussion that the Deans and the Provost will need to have.  I am going ahead and moving the certificate forward so those discussions can happen, but I am anticipating some hiccups as the Deans try and sort this out.

I replied that we acknowledged that there is a program in the business school and a MS in Engineering. I was not aware of something in Journalism. I also was not aware of another school, I assume this is Education. I emphasized that with the exception of the business school none of those options are available or realistic for undergraduates in CLAS and that the business school requirements are such that they aren’t realistic unless the student is pursuing some sort of degree in business.

But, we may need to reach out to the Dean’s office to help give the office strong reasons why the certificate is needed. We did that in the application. But, we should probably remind the office. Thoughts or suggestions on how to handle that are welcome? I was going to compose a short memo.

# Data Science Courses

-          Dealing with data (PSYC/POLS/ECON 199) has passed through the system and I believe will be listed next fall. I think there are still some slowdowns but it should be listed and when it does the plan is for Jiin Jung to teach this (transitioning from the pilot we have been running this year).

-          Hands on data science (PSYC/POLS/ECON 399) is filed. There was one hiccup in that a rationale wasn’t uploaded, but that is fixed. So that should be on books next spring. I think the plan is for Jeff Girard to teach one section of this (transitioning his seminar course from this spring), and we should also talk if others want to teach a section such as the LAS 797 course

# Next steps

-          I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but somewhere here I think it might be beneficial to put together a web presence that at least organizes the data science courses being offered in the College and other places, advertises some of the projects the students and we are doing, and offers a place where organizations might post contact information for students to connect with.

-          NRT. Two years ago some of us submitted a NRT titled “NRT-HDR: Community Data Labs: Creating Scalable Data Science Solutions for Local Organizations”. Part of the main focus was to work with organizations,  non-profits, and small businesses on data science projects. We got pretty good reviews, but did not get funded.  The weaknesses were (a) not a concrete training program in place; (b) they wanted to see a more concrete plan for connecting students with the organizations; and (c) they wanted to see a stronger training presence in terms of public policy.

I am considering revising and adapting this proposal again and trying again. If people are interested please contact me and we can talk about ways to do this. This would be a good way to jump start the graduate training in data science.

-          Other funding. I continue to look for funding for a capstone course for the data science certificate where undergraduates would work in a semester long course with community organizations and businesses. This would help the data science certificate (and probably help the provost’s office in deciding to support the certificate). There may be a possibility with the Kansas EPSCOR proposal and I am working to see if that can happen. If there are other ideas please feel free to reach out.

-          I am serving on the KU Research Technology Committee which is trying to chart a course for technology at KU for the next 10 years. My goal is to bring more cloud-based computing resources online like Jupyter Hub ( https://jh.hpc.crc.ku.edu/ ). If you have other ideas or input please let me know

-Tim Pleskac

Tim Pleskac | Professor of Psychology, University of Kansas | Program Director Brain, Behavior, and Quantitative
Behavioral Science | Behavioral Economics | Computational Modeling

https://www.timpleskac.com/

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