Brock Datathon to showcase storytelling using data

MEDIA RELEASE: 6 Nov. 2019 – R00175 

Have you ever had an online conversation about a product which then starts showing up in online advertisements shortly afterwards? Welcome to the world of big data, where cell phones methodically catalogue your shopping interests for marketers.

It’s just one example of how personal preference data is used by data scientists in an age of always-on, artificial intelligence (AI) powered marketing influence.

On Saturday, Nov. 9 at Brock University, top talent from IBM, Deloitte, Shopify, Environics and more will present keynote speeches and deliver in-depth workshops to a host of enthusiastic data junkies and Brock students at the third annual Datathon conference.

This year’s event, the Datathon 2019 Sustainability Challenge, offers an opportunity to learn how the “ads-coinciding-with-conversation” algorithm operates, how IBM’s Watson supercomputer learns to predict how a person feels with sentiment analysis or how the actuary field can predict financial risk.

Datathon is a non-profit organization created by Brock University students Nour Hage, Shakti Pradhan, Conrad Lipiec and Thomas Lillo.

This year, the team is offering live-streaming access to five other universities in Peru, Sweden and Spain. The international initiative will include schools who have less access to data centric programming at this level. Streaming content will put Brock in the global spotlight with the goal of scaling up future conferences to many more institutions.

The event is open to all and will include a special presentation from the winner of the Sustainability Development Challenge – a case competition that invites teams to showcase effective storytelling using data.

For fees and registration, go to https://www.datathon.ca

 

For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

Kevin Cavanagh, Brock University Communications, kcavanagh@brocku.ca or 905-688-5550 ext. 5888 or 905 321-4310

Michelle Pressé, Brock University Communications, mpresse@brocku.ca or 905-688-5550 ext. 4420 or 905-246-1963

Categories: Media releases