Through Year of Data and Society events, the University of Pittsburgh is fostering community, collaboration, and conversation around the societal, ethical, and political implications of data. We invite you to consider contributing a proposal to support a Year of Data and Society event (or other activity) through the Funding Opportunity.
This page will be updated with events throughout the Year of Data and Society. You can also find Year of Data and Society events listed on the University calendar.
Spring 2022 Semester Events
Ongoing, Through March 27 | Oscars Prediction Game
Virtual
Students are invited to join School of Computing and Information faculty member Dr. Kostas Pelechrinis for the Oscars Prediction Game this semester! In this asynchronous and flexible activity, students will learn data skills and apply them to predict this year’s Academy Award winners. We invite undergraduate and graduate students who are entirely new to data to get their feet wet through this activity.
Begin by visiting the Oscar Prediction Game website and watch the introductory video available there. On the website, you’ll also find three data skills videos that will help you as you form your Oscars predictions. You can then join the game’s Slack channel, where you can talk with other Pitt Panthers and mentors as you spend time with the videos and make your predictions.
The Oscar Prediction Game is a task in the Catalog of Opportunities.
March 28 – April 8 | Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge
The Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge, hosted by the Health Sciences Library System, the University Library System, and the Office of Sponsored Programs, and funded by the Year of Data and Society, is a two-week event from March 28 – April 8. It will include a wide range of learning opportunities and activities that will give you the practical tools to make your research more accessible, more reproducible, more connected to the public welfare, and more in line with your personal values.
Visit the Impact Challenge website to find out more and register. The more activities you complete and submit, the greater chance you’ll have of winning a gift card!
9AM - 2 PM; Hybrid (University Club and Virtual)
Data and analytics are powerful tools that can help us tackle society’s greatest challenges. The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, with support from the University’s Year of Data and Society, is leading a discussion addressing food insecurity and hunger in southwestern Pennsylvania, grounded in research and community engagement.
According to Feed America, 1 in 8 Americans goes hungry every day. In our region, a growing number of families struggle to make ends meet. The symposium will bring together perspectives from community, government, non-profit, and research to share knowledge and best practices, and promote data literacy and social responsibility centered on the issue of food insecurity.
Attendance, whether in-person or virtual, is free and open to all members of the University of Pittsburgh and broader community who are engaged in study, research, or service to increase food security in the region.
April 8 | Celebration of the Year of Data and Society
1 - 4:30 PM ; Hybrid (in University Club Ballroom B and on Zoom)
With Year of Data and Society Award Recipients
Academic Year 2021-2022 has been the Year of Data and Society at the University of Pittsburgh! This initiative of the Office of the Provost has supported an exciting collection of research, events, and curriculum development and teaching activities.
Join us on April 8 for a hybrid event in which we will learn about the faculty, student, and staff projects awarded through the Year of Data and Society! The event will include a panel on facilitating learning about data, a panel on sustaining the impact of project activities, lightning talks, and a poster session.
The Year of Data and Society has provided the University of Pittsburgh an opportunity to think critically about the data we collect, use, and leave behind as traces, through our scholarly work, institutional operations, and our digital lives. Join us as we learn how faculty, students, and staff are contributing to fostering socially responsible data practices and to understanding the impacts of data on our communities.
Participants are invited to attend in person or virtually and for all or part of the afternoon! Visit the event page for a schedule of activities.
April 14 | Data In/securities: Automating intelligence in the U.S. Department of Defense
4 - 5 PM; Virtual
Presented by Dr. Lucy Suchman, Professor Emerita of the Anthropology of Science and Technology at Lancaster University in the UK
The current revival of artificial intelligence (AI) includes an upsurge of investment in automating military intelligence on the part of the US Department of Defense. A series of programs within the various branches of the US military share a technopolitical imaginary of fully integrated, comprehensive and real-time ‘situational awareness’ across US theaters of operation. Much less attention is paid, however, to fundamental questions regarding translations from signals and images to understanding and response. This talk will foreground those questions and through them question the premises of trust in data that underwrite the military imaginary.
This event is sponsored by PittCyber and hosted by the Writing Institute and Sara Fine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh.
Critical Data Literacies Series (School of Education)
April 15, 12 - 1 PM; Virtual
Presented by Victor Lee of Stanford University
April 20 | “Designing for Critical Data Literacies”
4- 5 PM; Virtual
Presented by Sayamindu Dasgupta of the University of Washington
April 19 | Digital Preservation at the National Archives and Records Administration
10 - 11 AM; Virtual
Presented by Elizabeth England (MLIS '16), Digital Preservation Specialist at the National Archives and Records Administration
Hosted by the Bernadette Callery Archives Lecture Series at the School of Computing and Information and the Year of Data and Society
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) currently holds more than 2 billion electronic records, with ever-increasingly rapid growth as the U.S. Government transitions to all-electronic recordkeeping. With a commitment to preserving and maintaining access to the content of these records in perpetuity, NARA's approach to digital preservation must be holistic and scalable. In this talk, Elizabeth England (MLIS ’16), Digital Preservation Specialist at NARA, will discuss how NARA's digital preservation program is structured and current digital preservation activities for preservation planning and risk mitigation at a large-scale.