Dear South Big Data Hub Community,

This post contains the content that went out in our monthly newsletter–a listing of news, events, and opportunities in data science, analytics, engineering, and policy. If you have announcements or information that you would like to submit for next month’s newsletter or if you would like to contribute a guest post to the South Big Data Hubbub! blog, please use our submission form or email announcements@southbdhub.org.

Sincerely,
The South Big Data Hub Team

Data for Good Day with DataKind and Teradata Cares
On September 10, get inspired and give back with DataKind, Teradata Cares, Data Science for Social Good Atlanta, and the South Big Data Hub! Meet other members of Atlanta’s robust Data for Good community and learn about each organization’s unique approach to leveraging data in the service of humanity. Network and take action for an afternoon Project Accelerator helping nonprofits kick-start their data science journeys, and take part in a round table of data science experts to provide quick advice and data consulting. Dr. Renata Rawlings-Goss will deliver the keynote presentation. Register here.

PyData Carolinas, September 14-16, 2016: The South Hub is a silver sponsor of PyData Carolinas, a celebration of diversity in data science within the Python, R, and Julia communities, taking place September 14-16, 2016 at the IBM Activity Center in Research Triangle Park, NC. Dr. Lea Shanley, co-Executive Director of South Big Data Innovation Hub, will deliver a keynote at the conference. Special low academic rates are available. Learn more and register.

Industry-Academia Workshop: High Impact Applications of Data Science in Precision Medicine, Health Analytics, and Health Disparities
The workshop is being held at Georgia Tech’s Technology Square Research Building, in Atlanta on September 19 – 20, 2016, from 8:00 am – 6:00 pm  (EDT). Click here to register. Several travel awards are available to attend this South Hub-sponsored event that involves 50-75 participants and diverse stakeholders, including industry, academia, national laboratories, and nonprofits, whose expertise cuts across several traditional disciplines. There is a focus on involving early career (non-tenured) faculty and research scientists. More information including agendas and registration for all upcoming hub-hosted workshops can be found at http://southbdhub.org/workshops.html.

Data Quality Workshop: A workshop on Sept. 28 and 29, titled “Data Quality in an Era of Big Data,” is being hosted at Indiana University and sponsored by the Midwest Big Data Hub. South Big Data Hub members are also encouraged to attend. Travel scholarships are available for individuals who can participate in a poster session and dialogue on data quality. Deadline for application is this Friday 9/9. Click for more information.

Webinar

Harnessing the Data Revolution: A Perspective from the National Science Foundation: The South Hub is proud to host a webinar with Dr. Chaitanya Baru, Senior Advisor for Data Science, Director for Computer & Information Science Engineering (CISE/OAD), National Science Foundation, on September 26 from noon – 1:15 PM EDT.  The presentation is titled “Harnessing the Data Revolution: A Perspective from the National Science Foundation.” To join the WebEx meeting, click here. Meeting number (access code): 640 352 068. Questions about the event should be directed to Dr. Lea Shanley at lshanley@renci.org.

Working Groups

Data Sharing and Infrastructure Working Group
The South Big Data Hub Infrastructure working group has enlisted the help of members from the south region and is working in collaboration with the Midwest, West, and NE Big Data Hubs, including representatives from the National Data Service, XSEDE, DataNet Federation, and iRODS consortia. The WG will conduct a requirements analysis of Hub spokes and members, map existing assets, schedule demos of key components for a federated system, and through a testbed, demonstrate an analysis integrating NDS Labs, XSEDE and discovery environment. The WG will meet every other week, starting September 30^th from 3:00 – 4:30 pm ET. To join the To join the WebEx meeting, click here. Meeting number (access code): 310 282 152. Visit the Hackpad for taking notes. To join please contact Dr. Lea Shanley at lshanley@renci.org.

Education Working Group 
The Data Science Education Working Group will engage directly with the Hub Executive team to implement across hub activities, create tools, and do asset mapping around data science education. This working group would be a select group assisting the Hub in the development and administering of services to the membership as a whole. Initial calls will be open, so please feel free to add to the discussion. More information can be found in the education meeting notes on the education working group. To join please contact Dr. Renata Rawlings-Goss at rrawlingsgoss@gatech.edu and cc: shalbert@southbdhub.org.

The South Big Data Hub VITAL Data Series: Video, Image, Text, Audio, and Learning
If you are working on or interested in the analysis of Video, Image, Text, Audio, or Learning (VITAL) data we would like to hear from you. Please join us for our Community Engagement Working Group Calls where we will be exploring use cases and techniques across disciplines in each of these fundamental types of data. This is an effort to break down barriers across disciplines and bridge solutions across sectors including industry, academia, government, and non-profits. To join the Community Engagement working group or to become a speaker please contact: Dr. Renata Rawlings-Goss at rrawlingsgoss@gatech.edu and cc: shalbert@southbdhub.org.

• Video Data Analysis: Thursday October 27^th 1:00 -2:00 pm EST
• Image Data Analysis: Thursday November 10^th 1:00 -2:00 pm EST
• Text Data Analysis: Thursday December 8^th 1:00 -2:00 pm EST
• Audio Data Analysis: Thursday January 19^th  1:00 -2:00 pm EST
• Learning Data Analysis: Thursday TBD

Read more on all of these VITAL events and register at http://www.southbdhub.org/vital.html.

South Big Data Hub Roundtables

The South Hub will be hosting a series of live webcast roundtables focusing on data science and analytics research and applications in the spoke verticals, such as health, Smart cities, environment, natural hazards, energy, materials and advanced manufacturing. The first roundtable is scheduled for October 13 from noon – 1:15 pm EDT at RENCI at UNC-Chapel Hill. For more details or to suggest a topic/volunteer to participate, please contact Dr. Lea Shanley at lshanley@renci.org.

South Hub Communities of Practice

Smart and Connected Cities Community Call, Friday, Sept 9 from noon – 1:30 pm ET. Speakers to include Ethan McMahon, EPA Smart Cities Challenge; Dr. Sokwoo Rhee, NIST Smart Cities Challenge; Dr. Arcot Rajasekar, North Carolina Smart and Connected Communities Initiative, and Mina Sartipi, Urban Science and Technology, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. To join the WebEx meeting, click here. Meeting number (access code): 643 270 675. Visit the Hackpad for taking notes. For questions, please contact Dr. Lea Shanley at lshanley@renci.org.

Privacy, Security and Policy Community Call, Sept 14 from 2:00 – 3:30 pm ET. Speakers to be announced. To join the WebEx meeting, click here. Meeting number (access code):
To join the WebEx meeting, click here. Meeting number (access code): 641 931 847. Visit the Hackpad for taking notes. For questions, please contact Dr. Lea Shanley at lshanley@renci.org

Environment & Natural Hazards Community Call, Sept 16 from 11:00 – 12:15 pm ET. Speakers to be announced. To join the WebEx meeting, click here. Meeting number (access code): 645 738 105. Visit the Hackpad for taking notes. For questions, please contact Dr. Lea Shanley at lshanley@renci.org

Precision Medicine Workshop for Students: Applications due September 15. Student Pugwash USA empowers and equips students and young professionals to identify, critically analyze, and shape the ethical, policy, and societal dimensions of science and technology. The upcoming workshop for students is on the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI), and will be on October 1 in Washington, DC. This workshop will allow students to hear from experts working on the PMI and then to discuss and debate this cutting edge initiative in structured discussion groups using a strong analytical lens. The workshop is appropriate for graduate or undergraduate students from medicine/ natural science or from bioethics, health policy, and related social science fields. Visit www.spusa.org for details and to apply.

EPA’s Smart City Air Challenge: Up to $80,000 for community-based projects.
EPA is conducting the Smart City Air Challenge, which encourages communities to deploy hundreds of air quality sensors and make the resulting data open. Local governments will partner with sensor manufacturers, data management companies and others. Together they’ll create strategies for collecting and using the data. EPA will award prizes of up to $40,000 each to two communities based on their strategies, including their plans to share their data management methods so others can benefit. The prizes are intended to be seed money, so the partnerships are essential. After a year, EPA will evaluate the accomplishments and collaboration of the two communities and award up to an additional $10,000 to each community. The challenge is open until October 28. Please spread the word. For more information, visit the Smart City Air Challenge website or write to smartcityairchallenge@epa.gov.

US DOT Releases Data, Call to Action: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is releasing 2015 traffic fatality data in raw format and putting out a call to action to jump in and analyze it. Click to learn more.

Open Data Summit: The White House will showcase recent and future open data and My Data achievements at the September 28th Open Data Innovation Summit with Solutions Showcase! Submit your achievements and commitments here.

Call for Applications: AAAS Big Data & Analytics Fellowships: The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellowship Big Data & Analytics (BDA) program (http://www.aaas.org/story-topics/big-data-analytics) is now accepting applications. Fellows are placed in federal agencies in Washington, DC, and address a broad range of policymaking and implementation challenges by applying analytical skills to data and trend analysis issues from infrastructure, technology, quality control, and presentation to security and ethics.  Applicants are encouraged across all career stages — from early to emeritus — and across all sectors — from academia to the private sector. Click to learn more about the program and apply. The deadline is November 1, 2016.