Romania will host for the first time, on February 5, the international academic competition in the "data science" domain - "Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon Workshop" - organized by Think Tank 360, under the banner of Stanford University USA.

The competition precedes the World Conference "Women in Data Science" (WiDS) of March 7 and will bring to focus teams which desire to perfect abilities in data science, at the world level this community reaching 100,000 persons passionate about data from 85 countries.

The competition is supported by Wolters Kluwer Romania, strategic partner, in collaboration with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, academic partner, and the Nicolae Balcescu University of Land Forces in Sibiu, academic partner, the Center Region, as well as the United States Embassy in Romania.

The Bucharest competition will see the attendance of Romanian teams from the academic, private and governmental environments that will compete, at the international level, with teams of professionals with tradition in data science.

The topic of the competition this year is represented by climate change and green energy, and the data made available to competitors were gathered with help from the experts at Climate Change AI (CCAI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and MIT Critical Data. The winners of the international competition, including the national standings will be announced at the WiDS Conference "Women in Data Science" Romania on March 7.

"We are grateful to Think Tank 360 and their partners for bringing WiDS Datathon to Romania. (...) WiDS Datathon enables participants to hone their skills in data science by responding to the challenges of mitigating the negative impact of climate change," said Judy Logan, Co-Director of the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Initiative at Stanford University.

In her turn, Mariana Ungureanu, founder of Think Tank 360, believes the organization of this international competition in Bucharest places Romania on the map of the world's avant-garde in data science.

"It is a true honor and privilege to organize this international competition in Bucharest. Thus, we are placing Romania on the map of the world's avangarde in data science and we are showing the potential our country has in this domain. The topic this year is of great actuality and importance, because global climate change and its impact on life have become some of the greatest challenges of our generation," said Mariana Ungureanu.

Climate change is a danger for the entire planet, and researching large volumes of data offers a huge opportunity in identifying solutions that would facilitate the scientific management of climate issues, the release mentions.

"New technologies and digitization are fundamental for progress and development of the energy sector. We believe that the road towards clean energy starts with the process of innovation and digitization, key factors in our strategy to develop for 2030," showed, in context, Alina Popa, CFO of OMV Petrom.

In his turn, Thomas Kolarik, deputy executive president for operations & IT with the Romanian Commercial Bank, stated that discussions on the influence of data science on the progress of society are a necessity and projects such as the WiDS Datathon, which bring together the needs of the community, the role of innovation and technology, and gender equality, help us establish a connection and action plan, with concrete measures, in order to effect change in society.

The event will be freely available for access on the platforms of Wolters Kluwer Romania, Think Tank 360 and the webpage of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), being dedicated to all those interested in data science, especially in the domain of climate change.

Among the speakers at the event are: Ligia Deca, presidential adviser, Adrian Chesnoiu, Minister of Agriculture, Pamela Ward, representative of the Department of Commerce for Eastern Europe with the US Embassy, Prof. Dorel Paraschiv, Ph.D., prorector of ASE Bucharest, Brigadier General Prof. Ghita Barsan, Eng.D., rector of the Nicolae Balcescu University of Land Forces in Sibiu, Chang Sun, Ph.D., Data Science Institute of the University of Maastricht, Robert Szep, State Secretary with the Environment Ministry, Liviu Rogojinaru, minister-counsellor, Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Alina Popa, CFO of OMV PETROM, Thomas Kolarik, COO of the Romanian Commercial Bank, Razvan Nicolescu, member in the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, Marina Barlescu, Cognitive & Analytics leader IBM Romania, Lavinia Neagoe, Tech Site Lead, Senior Engineer Manager Google Romania, Remus Racolta, Data and Analytics, ING Tech Romania.

The media partners of the event are AGERPRES, Bursa, News, The Diplomat Bucharest, Economistul, Romania Durabila, Club Economic, Money.ro. AGERPRES (RO - author: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Nicoleta Gherasi; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Simona Iacob)