Climate Action Training Program – Data Science Short Course

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Climate Action Training Program participants work together to develop an app to effectively present climate data. Photo Credit: Stephen Allison
Climate Action Training Program participants work together to develop an app to effectively present climate data. Photo Credit: Steven Allison

Climate Action Training Program – Data Science Short Course

In March 2016, a multidisciplinary cohort of graduate students in the UCI Climate Action Training Program participated in a Data Science short course to improve their skills in communicating big data.

The Climate Action Training Program runs from January – December 2016 and includes nine graduate students from a variety of disciplines who plan to pursue careers that address climate issues. The goal is to develop communication and professional skills through workshops.

In the Data Science Short Course, the nine Climate Action students and eleven PhD students interested in climate research participated in cross-disciplinary collaboration to address water security questions.[fusion_separator style_type=”none” top_margin=”1″ bottom_margin=”1″ sep_color=”” border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” class=”” id=””/]

“We had English students coding in R and building web tools, which is quite interdisciplinary. I was pleased that the students were able to successfully work in teams to address substantive questions about water security while also developing data science and communication skills.”

-Professor Steven Allison
Faculty Climate Action Champion

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Drought Awareness App
Climate Action Students developed a web app that shows the number of google searches for drought terms and water usage after Governor Brown’s declaration of a drought-related State of Emergency (Click to see interactive app).

Students were arranged into four teams and were tasked with developing a web app to display their results. Check out an interactive web app that a climate action team developed to show the number of drought-related google searches and water usage after Governor Brown declared a State of Emergency due to drought conditions. The app authors include Alexa Ritchie, Colleen Nell, Danica Loucks, Joey Ly, and Sofia Hallerback.

Additional Presentations

Additional presentations helped supplement the learning experience by giving the students an opportunity to learn from the experts. Presenters included:

  • Padhraic Smyth, Director of the Data Science Initiative. Professor Smyth spoke about the emerging field of Data Science.
  • Emily Brooks, Ph.D Candidate, UCI Anthropology. Brooks engaged participants in a presentation on scientific collaboration and communication
  • David Feldman, Director Water UCI. Professor Feldman gave a presentation on water security in California.

About the Climate Action Training Program

This opportunity was sponsored by the UC Office of the President through the Sustainability Initiative and a Climate Action Champion grant awarded to Professor Steven Allison to develop the Climate Action Training Program for UCI graduate students.

Photo Album

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