We Are the Future of Data Science!

The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Yoo Sang-im) held the 2024 K-Data Science Conference & Hackathon at the Samsung Convention Center of Seoul National University on November 13.

Since 2022 the Ministry of Science and ICT has been running the Data Science Convergence Talent Development program to train high-level professionals with data knowledge (e.g. artificial intelligence and statistical analysis) and expertise in specific application fields* aiming to foster data science** Ph.D. and master’s level talent.
*Areas include life sciences energy and other scientific fields manufacturing and robotics and humanities such as management economics and finance.
**Data science is a multidisciplinary field that researches scientific methodologies (algorithms) for data collection analysis and processing to extract meaningful information from diverse data.

The event was organized to foster collaboration for the advancement of graduate data science programs and brought together over 300 researchers from 10 participating graduate schools and Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Data Science. The event included a hackathon and a conference featuring presentations on research achievements an MOU signing between the Graduate School of Data Science and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) and discussions on the future of data science.
*The term “hackathon” combines “hacking” and “marathon” where planners developers and designers form teams to develop services around a theme within a limited timeframe.

The K-Data Science Hackathon ran from November 11 to 13 with 26 teams (90 participants) advancing to the final round out of 41 teams that registered. Participants comprised of graduate and undergraduate students nationwide developed programs based on AI training data provided by the AI Hub platform. The team 24cha 9789 (Kyungpook National University) won the Minister’s Award for developing a vehicle damage analysis and estimation system while Oh My Data (Seoul National University) received the award for creating an adaptive learning system based on math learning history.

The K-Data Science Conference on November 13 opened with tutorial sessions by professors from the Graduate School of Data Science followed by presentations of selected research topics by graduate students. Out of 43 submitted topics 28 were presented with a team of master’s and Ph.D. students from Korea University winning the Minister’s Award for their presentation titled “ECLayr: Fast and Robust Topological Layer Based on Differentiable Euler Characteristic Curve.”

To promote data science talent and support the usage and spread of AI training data (AI Hub) an MOU was signed between 11 graduate data science programs and the NIA.

At the Data Science Development Forum universities participating in the Data Science Convergence Talent Development program shared their achievements and techniques and explored inter-school cooperation. Researchers and lecturers in data science also held an open discussion on “The Role of Data Scientists in the AI Era.”

Hwang Pan-sik Director of the Research and Development Policy Bureau stated “Data scientists are not just big data technicians; they are scholars and convergence talents who possess deep insights to solve complex problems and develop business models through a clear understanding of large-scale data.” He emphasized “The data science academic community in Korea will play a vital role in pioneering new research and industrial fields driving innovation in the digital transformation era.”

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