Duke Datathon

Dr. Usama Fayyad, Chairman & CEO at Open Insights

Dr. Usama Fayyad is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at OODA Health, as well as the Co-founder and Chairman of IADSS. At both companies, he plays an important role in defining and advocating for the field of data science and its applications.

His background includes chairman and CEO roles at several startups, including Blue Kangaroo and DMX. When Yahoo! aquired his second startup in 2004, Dr. Fayyad became the first person to hold the Chief Data Officer title. Additionally, he founded the Machine Learning Systems group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he was eventually awarded the Excellence in Research award from Caltech, as well as a United States Government medal from NASA.

Aside from his experience in the field, Dr. Fayyad currently holds 30 patents, has published 100 technical articles on data science and related fields, and is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Who can participate?

Any undergraduate or graduate student (from any institution) can participate, including any major! Even if you're not a student, if you have a passion for data science and are interested in coming, we'd love to have you sign up to be a mentor or lead a workshop!

What do I work on?

We'll provide a dataset; after that, it's up to you! Be as creative as you want with the data to tackle a problem of your choosing, and use any programming languages, development stacks, APIs, and other tools you'd need.

What if I don’t know how to code?

Don't worry! We'll have mentors and workshops available to help you for the entire duration of the event.

How much does it cost to attend?

Short answer: nil. Long answer: $0.00. Yup! We'll provide you with the resources, tools, mentors, and food, all for free.

What should I bring to the datathon?

We'll provide the food, but you should bring:
     A laptop + charger
     A cellphone
     A student ID

Can I work with a team?

Yes! In fact, we encourage it! The maximum number of people on a team is four. However, if you would like to go solo or work with fewer people, that works as well. If you don't have a team yet, don't worry. We'll have a team building session right before the event starts.

Is travel covered?

Travel reimbursements will be provided to select students traveling from outside the Research Triangle to cover travel via flight, train, or bus. Accommodation will be arranged with student hosts, but you should bring a sleeping bag and pillow!

Who's organizing the datathon?

The executive board of Duke Undergraduate Machine Learning. Check us out here.

I still have more questions!

If you have any questions that we have not addressed, don't hesitate to contact us at hello@dukeml.org. If you're interested in sponsoring Duke Datathon, please contact us!