Hello * FROM dataScienceSociety,

We've just returned from a wild trip to Dell's Innovation Labs in Limerick, and we thought it may be appropiate to share a recap for those who couldn't join us. The day was packed with state-of-the-art technology, enlightening discussions, and hands-on experiences. I think it's fair to say that we all left inspired.

Dell Innovation Labs

Our journey kicked off with a bus ride from Maynooth to Dell's customer solution center in Limerick. There, we were warmly greeted by Pat O'Duffy, Senior Consultant at Dell and our gracious host for the day. Pat began by sharing highlights from his career journey and some of the groundbreaking projects he's been involved with at Dell.

Innovation Lab Tour

The tour of the Innovation Lab was undoubtedly the highlight of our visit. Pat, who played a key role in establishing this pioneering facility in Limerick, guided us through an impressive array of technologies.

The lab was a showcase of Dell-enabled products: conveyor belts, robotic arms, and cameras of every description. We even had the chance to challenge (and lose to

Throughout the tour, Pat offered valuable insights into the data science aspects of these technologies, emphasizing how each solution collects and transforms data into actionable information.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Vishal Manuhar, a recent graduate of UL whose been with Dell for over two years now. Vishal showcased his work on data-driven healthcare solutions, including an AR experience that allowed us to interact with a virtual heart - both seeing and feeling it! 

It's always good to see a recent graduate making significant contributions to such big projects. Hopefully soon current DSS members will get similar opportunities.

Limerick Office Tour

En route to lunch, we got a glimpse of the vast Limerick offices. Pat mentioned how the space, originally used for manufacturing. The Global Command Center was particularly impressive.

Computer Vision Deep Dive

Post-lunch, we returned to the Innovation Lab for a focused discussion on computer vision, one of Pat's areas of expertise. We delved into current technologies in this field, with a particular emphasis on public acceptance. Pat shared about how Dell supports ongoing research in Norway on this very topic.

Data Center Experience

Our visit concluded with a tour of the adjacent Data Center. The sheer scale and power of the facility were mind-blowing, despite the deafening noise levels! Pat showcased some of the their most advanced hardware on display and introduced us to an alternative, fully submersive, liquid cooling system he's been developing.

A Day to Remember

We are filled with gratitude for this incredible experience. The trip provided us with invaluable insights into real-world applications of data science and advanced technology.

We at the DSS would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Pat O'Duffy for generously sharing his time, knowledge, and passion with us. He's an inspiration to young technical-minded fanatics who are excited by applying solutions to real world problems.

+We're also grateful to the clubs and socs office for helping us secure the bus.

Pictures taken on the trip can be found within the gallery @ the bottom of our page!

Hello data enthusiasts!

We've had another exciting couple of weeks here at the Data Science Society, and we've got even more planned for you.

First off, we want to give a huge thank you to our president, Louis Thomas, and master's research student, Ronan Murphy, for their fantastic talks over the past two weeks.

We're lucky to be able to welcome Niamh Cahill, a great lecturer from the maths/stats department who I'm sure most of us are very familar with, as she will be giving a talk on the accessibility of research. This is a topic that's crucial for all aspiring data scientists, especially those who might want to remain within academia or any further study, so don't miss out! Keep an eye out for the poster with more details coming soon.

Dell Innovation Center Trip: We've been invited so we're organizing a trip to Dell's Innovation Center in Limerick! We're organizing a bus for the 21st of March (The Friday of our mid-term). This is a fantastic opportunity to see cutting-edge technology in action and learn from industry professionals. If you're interested in joining us, please contact Ethan Ross on WhatsApp before Monday at +353 85 761 4557 to secure your spot.

Concert Announcement: Get ready to rock! We're hosting a concert on April 2nd featuring some amazing talent. First up is Dr. Rafael de Andrade Moral, another one of our dear lecturers from maths/stats, who will be performing with as part of his band. Following them will be IMBAU, whose bass player is also a data scientist (talk about multi-talented!). And to close out the night, we'll have a performance by the DJ Society. All proceeds from the concert will be donated to charity, so come out and support a great cause while enjoying some awesome music. Book your free tickets now on Eventbrite: GET TICKETS NOW

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events!
Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities from the Data Science Society.

And We're Back!

Hello DS-enjoyers! We hope everyone is settling into their rhythms for Semester 2. After today's event, it's safe to say—we certainly are.

Earlier, we had the pleasure of hosting a conversation with Professor Philip Hyland.  If you'll imagine studying statistics to be analogous to studying the engine, our guest today was the wildey humble and charaismatic Lightning McQueen -CaChow-. We covered a wide range of topics, including (but not limited to) how Professor Hyland uses statistics in his day-to-day work, experimental design, insights from the PhD students he's supervised, and current affairs in academia. We also touched on the applications of ANOVA in psychological research, generative AI, his fascinating work on trauma and PTSD.

We ended on an absolute banger, and one of the most intriguing parts of the discussion, his current research on classification of conditions, this tied into stigmas with self-reported data and work he's doing to not only fight certain beliefs but engineer and improve new methods for accurate and meaningful data collection, It reminds me how perfomers often open with their second-best stuff and finish with their best, to really leave an impression. Yet it was so natural, - wholly engaging throughout. It was a lot to cover, and that's because Professor Hyland's passion for his work is electric. I think it's fair to say that everyone more than enjoyed his time, and left with no shortage of ideas to think on.

Perhaps we'll pick up where we left off or start a completely new line of ideas next time, as we’ll absolutely be taking Professor Hyland up on his offer to return, so if you missed out, don’t worry. Stay tuned in the coming semesters for another collab with psychologySoc as we take the opportunity to pick the mind of one of Maynooth's more eccentric people of interest.

In other news, a big shoutout to Myles and James, who represented us at the Civ VI event. They delivered a stellar performance, and we’ll have a full report soon, complete with graphs and RAW DATA (you know we love that). Huge thanks to GameSoc and ClassicsSoc for their participation—the in-game negotiations were almost as entertaining as the competition itself! Here’s hoping this becomes a semi-regular event.

That’s all from us for now! Our shiny competition has just wrapped up, so stay tuned for details about an upcoming showcase. Plus, we’ve got plenty more fascinating speakers lined up in the weeks ahead.

Cheers!

Hello once again!

For a student run-society I think we had a pretty busy week last week. We had our AGM on Wednesday and our very first seminar on Friday, where we were treated to a brilliant talk by Eryk from Zurich. During the AGM we covered what we've done up till now, looked forward at our plans for the future and elected a core committee, and some focus groups for different tasks. If you'd like to have a look, the slides are available through the link below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O1DG0sDYEpmf1F94GSI2WlsppXq_SKsR/view?usp=sharing

These were just to guide us through what we wanted to cover, for more details on any issues you can message us here on the mulife page.

Eryk's talk was far greater than any of us could have ever imagined. he travelled from London to set the bar seriously high for the series of talks we're planning for semester 2.

He covered a wide array of topics, including his decision to study actuary, his journey to the present, an explanation of what an actuary does (not just crunching numbers, policy and market knowledge applied), interactive examples, actuarial exams, the corporate structure he has encountered, the use of R and other statistical software, the types of clients and problems he handles, work-life balance, and the ultimate importance of developing your skills.

Anyone present might recall that I was personally very excited when he -unpromptedly- mentioned his use of R-Shiny, as a powerful tool at his disposal. Although he followed this by saying that his team was moving to Power BI he further championed R-Shiny as a more powerful and customisable tool. So I will take the opportunity again to plug our R-Shiny competition, more details can be found in an adjacent post. Finally, we'd like to wish you all a very merry christmas. We'll be working behind the scenes to bring you all some quailty events next semester.

Stay tuned!

Hello again stats fiends!

The weather maybe cold but the passion for data science is always red hot.

I just wanted to post a quick update to keep you all in the loop.

Firstly, as the image suggests, the lovely people in the maths & stats department have given us a noticeboard across from math's soc's.

If you want to find it, it's on the top floor of logic house, between MS1 & MS2.

This is a great gift to us, we'll make serious effort to keep it up to date with DSS activities and other bits and pieces you might find interesting.

Be sure to check it out as you go to your tutorials throughout the week. As time goes on it will only get better.

Secondly, we'll be having our first ever AGM next wednesday! Details are available here on this page.

This an opportunity for us to share plans and ideas for semester 2 and the further future. If you can, please come along.

There'll be opportunity for discussion, elections for committee roles and maybe even some simple games for the craic.

It's open to anyone and everyone, so if you're reading this and you're somehow still on the fence, come and let us make our case.

That's all for now, some eagle-eyed viewers may have seen the soft-announcement of our next event on the noticeboard in logic house but we'll only post details here when everythings confirmed.

Good luck in your exams.

Stay warm, study hard and may all your Christmas wishes come true.

Hello, current and future Data science enjoyers!

We hope you're all keeping well.

Our Shiny App developement competition has been LIVE as of the info session / start event we hosted on Wednesday the 27th of November @ 16:00.

If you couldn't make it; do not worry.

You can join at any time before the deadline - which is END OF FIRST WEEK IN SEMESTER 2 (FEBRUARY 9th) -

This means you can focus on exams now if needed and any free time you find inbetween you can get cracking on your app.

If you're looking to register yourself (or as part of a team) you can do so using this link: https://forms.office.com/e/1VNUz5P4FF

If you're looking for more information you can also check out this powerpoint which was presented at the info session here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GRYI9iAJcS22bB68X-UHJ9j-6UsYa16k/view?usp=sharing

This contains all the specifications for the competition.

Any and all other questions, message us here! or instagram, or anywhere.

Good luck to all, we can't wait to see what you come up with!

Hello reader!

Firstly I'd like to thank for you expressing enough interest to come check out the page.

Who are we? a mad bunch. Personally, my name is Owen and I joined MU into 2nd year and intially struggled to find some community.  I knew I loved data science, and there's load of people here studying some aspect of it, so there must be other fanatics too.  Myself and our president Louis Thomas had these same feelings so last year we found a handful of other lunatics and made a presentation for a society application.

We hosted coffee mornings, met (controversially) in the library, spread the word of stats/ds at Maynooth open days, and clubs/socs fair days alike and hatched up a bunch of wild plans. The maths/stats department here has rallied behind us along with a number of lecturers and of course the clubs and socs office (shoutout to the Maries)

So here we are, some months later, getting official approval on the 28th of November 2024. We're gonna try do some cool stuff, stuff that we think would greatly supplement that fantastic stats/ds content already provided by the university. We've got a focus on being commuter friendly (where possible) especially because our entire commitee is comprised of commuters. Semester 2 we think will really see us expload onto the scene but we're making no excuses for now. We'll try cramp some stats/ds goodness in before the end of 2024. If you've got any time to share with us between exam prep and general life, we'll try our best to make it worthwhile.

And for the real fanatics reading this, please join us. We'll need all the help we can get. Our output is EXTREMELY corrolated with the input. When we we're applying to create this we required 30 signature, we got more than 70, so we know you're out there!

As tescos never fails to remind us, every little helps.