May/June 2021 Newsletter

PACM & DSA Newsletter

May/ June
2021

Providing you with timely and relevant information to help you stay up-to-date with the fields of applied math and data science.

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In this Issue:

New Coding Challenge for DSA students.
Read an article on automated crater detection suggested by DSA faculty Betsy McCall.
Catch up with PACM alumnus Alban Morina.
Data Now
Tips for making your resumes, cover letters and interviews the best.
Upcoming events- Don't miss the PACM & DSA Graduation Celebration.

DSA Coding Challenge

We are excited to announce the upcoming launch of the DSA Coding Challenge!

Beginning next month, DSA will encourage students to deepen their knowledge of Python programming by participating in coding challenges. These challenges will explore specific skills expected of DSA employees. The challenge will support and expand on material covered in courses, too. Some may focus on coding challenges used during the interview process!

The current plan is to provide different coding challenges throughout the Fall, Spring and Summer.

Watch Your Mailbox – detailed information on rules and rewards coming soon!

Faculty Pick

Each newsletter a faculty member shares a relevant article, dashboard, visualization or video. This newsletter's faculty pick is DSA adjunct faculty, Betsy McCall.

I picked this article first and foremost because I am a space geek. It's really great that machine learning is finally able to contribute to the field. I remember when the Zooniverse website was set up to classify galaxies by hand with thousands of online volunteers because people could do these--even relatively simple classification tasks--more effectively than machine learning algorithms. Zooniverse is still out there for hand classification, but machine learning has seen an explosion of new contributions to astronomy and planetary science recently. This article is just one example about crater detection. It's been used to find exoplanets as well. It's really on the cutting edge of planetary science right now.

This specific article is a nice overview of past techniques, and issues that have arisen from them. This specific article uses convolutional neural networks. They emphasize in their discussion about the opportunities for collaboration between data scientists and planetary scientists.

I'll be working on a similar system for my dissertation related to climate change.

Read the article here.

Registration for summer courses is open. Get ahead by registering for either DSA 501 or GEG 584. See course descriptions here.

Alumni Spotlight

with Alban Morina '16

Alban is a PACM alumni and is currently a Data Manager at Learning, Engagement, and Development Services at Buffalo State.

Job Description: I work with a team to conduct research, analyze data and report findings to our current funder, the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. I've had the opportunity to work with my team on developing and administering surveys. Most recently, I have been mapping training data throughout NYS. I also run the Learning, Engagement, and Development Services Twitter page (@LEADSatBSC) where we put out information regarding health and wellness pertaining to our research. One time, we even shared that we were looking for an interested graduate assistant to help with research and analyze some health data – give us a follow.

If you could do it again, what would you do differently?: I would have pushed myself to get more involved with the campus through research or the Civic and Community Engagement center. Buffalo State has so many opportunities for students to use their voice in order to make an impact.

The college is surrounded by a very diverse community and interested partners; there’s always this desire to work together. This is the City of Good Neighbors! Knowing everything I know now I would have made more deliberate efforts to contribute to the name by involving myself in both the campus and community culture.

What advice do you have for current students?: Don’t be afraid to ask your professors for help, especially after class. I can’t recall all the times I met with Dr. Carbonara to ask for his help – he always said yes, and I could tell he was truly invested in helping.

Also, keep your eyes open for the opportunities at Buffalo State – don’t be afraid to apply for an internship, put your resume in.

Lastly, make sure you check out the West Side Bazaar and Café 59. Your taste buds will thank you.

See their full profile on the PACM website here.

Data Now

Data science in the everyday

Visualizing Anti-Asian Violence

Check out the data visualizations used in this New York Times article. Note their choice of color and how use it to emphasize the point they are trying to get across.

Read the full article here.

Want to learn to to make your own great data visualizations? Register for HEA 730 offered in both Fall and Spring.

Resume, Cover Letter and Interviews

David Jacome invited Denise Harris, the director of the Career Development Center, to speak to the PSM 602 students about resumes, cover letter and interviews.

These are skills that every student needs. Here are a few tips from the presentation, to get everything watch the full presentation with the link below.

Resume

Use the official name for Buffalo State (State University of New York College at Buffalo)
Write out your full degree name (Bachelor of Science NOT B.S., Master of Science NOT M.S.)

Cover letters

Do NOT use To whom it may concern in your cover letter! Instead write the specific contact name or Dear Hiring Manager.
Format your cover letter with the intro paragraph (what position you are applying for and what you can bring to the organization), 1-2 body paragraphs (illustrate how your skills connect to the position, and conclusion (summary, thank you, and request a follow-up).

Interviews

In a virtual interview log on 5 minutes before the start time.
A group interview is an opportunity to show how well you work on a team. Don't consider the other candidates your competition, consider them your teammates.

If you need help writing your resume or cover letter, or need help preparing for an interview contact the Career Development Center at askcdc@buffalostate.edu.

If you are interested in watching the full presentation please click here.

Novel Data Science Applications

Looking for a new apartment?
Can Python help?

As Summer approaches you may be looking for a new apartment for the next year. And apartment hunting can be a pain. What if you could make it easier by using Python to sort through the websites for you and bring you the best results? This is exactly what Ethan Swan attempted to do.

Here is what Ethan did:

Scraped the Zillow website.
Created a Python code to pull out apartments that meet his specifications (location, number of bedrooms, etc.)
Cleaned the data.
Created a ranking system based on the specifications he was most interested in.
Determined the highest scoring properties which he could then look at instead of having to look through the whole Zillow site.

Check out the article here, which includes his python code which you could modify to potentially help you find your next apartment. Or at least help you improve your Python skills.