DataAware introduces high school students to health data analytics
Students from high schools throughout the Triangle traveled to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus this summer to learn about data science.
Instead of hanging with friends or binging on Netflix, 10 high school students spent part of their summers analyzing data and tackling health care challenges through the DataAware program hosted by the Carolina 健康 Informatics Program.
DataAware, short for Data Analytics for Teen Advancement: Applications in the Workforce and 学者 with 研究 Experience, 从7月8日到8月，为期六周. 16. Students from various high schools in the Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh area traveled to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus each weekday to learn about health data analytics, 数字医疗技术, 机器学习, real-world problem solving and academic re太阳城娱乐城.
Supported by a grant from the National Institutes of 健康, DataAware loaned each participant a laptop, equipped with the needed software and data sets, 并提供了1美元,000年津贴. Students received intensive training through classroom instruction, field trips to companies and organizations working in health data analytics, 以及教师专家的指导, who helped them develop re太阳城娱乐城 projects that they presented on the final day of the workshop.
Devesh Kasireddy, a rising junior of Granville High School in Cary, had a great time exploring the various aspects of data science and learning about cutting-edge topics such as Virtual Reality applications for health care.
“This was a really unique program to me,” he said. “通常, there’s stuff about pharmacy and medicine available, 但数据科学是一个新领域, and I felt that if I had experience in this field, then I can apply it to many different fields. That will be useful for me in the future.”
米卡王, a health informatics doctoral student and instructor for DataAware, said the experience and career insights offered by the program should help students navigate their futures. 王说的分析能力, 批判性阅读的能力, think critically and approach a question from a re太阳城娱乐城 perspective” would also be valuable.
范昱, Assistant Professor at the UNC School of 信息 and 图书馆学 and a health technology and informatics librarian at the 健康 Science Library, served as one of the program’s faculty mentors. Yu said she was impressed by the level of interest and commitment the students demonstrated.
“These high school students are so dedicated to their re太阳城娱乐城 projects,” she said. “I can see many of them wanting to go beyond this time and continue to work with mentors and professors. This makes me feel what I did for this DataAware boot camp was meaningful.”
Yu is working to arrange an internship so she and DataAware student Bhargava Kolli can continue their analysis of the opioid crisis in the U.S., specifically how industry, government, and health care organizations have responded. Several other students also plan to continue working on their re太阳城娱乐城 topics beyond the six weeks of the program.
