Data Science on Public Education
Data Science on Public Education is an initiative that aims at helping students of public schools to empower themselves. These students, mostly low-income and African descendants, receive economic and educational support to develop data-driven and scientific thinking skills. Furthermore, their background and voices are integral parts of their learning experience. Students were brought closer to STEM related subjects while working with a curriculum without the barriers that traditionally separate statistics and other disciplines. Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Social leadership were connected with school, community and city related issues. Results are already visible as the students display more confidence, positive self-esteem and a disposition to become agents of social change. However, in order to achieve a permanent change in their schools, faculty staff has also been tutored about real world Data Science and Artificial Intelligence applications as well as social justice efforts. At an even bigger scale, four e-books are being written and a website is being developed and will be available for students and teachers. We hope that the integrated leadership between schools, universities and communities promotes the creation of new educational territories and contributes to the contemporary processes of reversal of social, racial and gender disparities.
About Karla Patricia Oliveira
Karla Esquerre is an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, where she leads research and educational and social initiatives to foster the development of metrics and mindful analysis to build sustainable processes and a better society. Leader of Gamma Research Group. Idealizer and coordinator of the Girl on Data Science and Data Science on Public Education initiatives. Co-founder of AI Inclusive Salvador and R-Ladies Salvador, organizations to promote gender diversity in several areas. PhD in Chemical Engineering, Unicamp (Brazil, 2003). Postdoctoral fellow in Socio-Environmental Engineering, University of Hokkaido (Japan, 2003-2005). Visiting Scholar within the Center for Control Systems and Dynamics (2015) and the Adaptive Computing and Embedded Systems Lab (2020), University of California San Diego - UCSD.
