Researchers involved in the Arkansas NSF EPSCoR DART program met in April at the Data Analytics that are Robust and Trusted (DART) All Hands Meeting and Student Poster Competition in Springdale.

Amy Hoang and Laasya Ravipati won first place in the Undergraduate Poster Competition at the conference. Hoang and Ravipati's project, which included help from their faculty advisor Karl Schubert and their staff advisor Lee Shoultz, involved comparing courses of the two-year Arkansas colleges with University of Arkansas courses to develop pathways for two-year data science students to transfer to four-year colleges and complete a B.S. in data science for colleges and universities within the "Data Science for Arkansas (DS4A)" ecosystem.

Amy Hoang and Laasya Ravipati

Trace Freeman

Shantel Romer

This project is important and insightful as the Data Science Program at the university, which launched in fall 2020, is the first of its kind in Arkansas. Hoang and Ravipati's award-winning poster, titled "2-Year Course Equivalencies," earned them a prize of $1,500 each to be used toward attending a future conference of their choice.

Trace Freeman won third place in the Undergraduate Poster Competition at the conference. Freeman's work entails the establishment of a study abroad partnership with the University of Nicosia located in Cyprus and applicable course equivalencies. Freeman's award-winning poster, titled "University of Arkansas Semester Abroad in Nicosia, Cyprus" earned him a prize of $500 to be used toward attending a future conference of his choice.

Shantel Romer, a graduate assistant of the DART project, won second place in the Graduate Poster Competition during the conference. Shantel's poster titled "The Year of the 2-Years: Course Track Overview," entails her continuous work in establishing the 2-plus program with colleges and universities across Arkansas. Her work is important to the overall DART project as it helps give students of all backgrounds and financial status the opportunity to receive an education in data science. Romer's award-winning poster earned her a prize of $750 to be used toward attending a future conference of her choice.  

Karl Schubert, associate director of the Data Science Program, said, "I am very proud of Amy, Laasya, Trace and Shantel for their contribution to our statewide Data Science ecosystem, 'Data Science for Arkansas,' as recognized by their winning posters.  Their work is helping us, and our two-year and four-year Data Science Program partners fully establish their programs across the state of Arkansas."

About the NSF EPSCoR DART-Education Theme: The Arkansas NSF EPSCoR program is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary, statewide grant program leveraging $24 million over 5-years to expand research, workforce development, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) educational outreach in Arkansas. The DART project is additionally will establish a statewide data science educational ecosystem by defining a combination of model programs, degrees, pedagogy and curriculum, providing resources and training for K20 educators, providing educational opportunities inside and outside the classroom for K20 students, and ensuring broad participation to impact the state's pipeline of data science skilled workers.