The summer is often a period of rest for many, especially those of school age. For some, the thought of nothing to do is pure anathema: enter the summer school.
Typically, these revolve around outdoor activities or other ‘character-building’ exercises. This is a far cry from what youths can expect at the newly announced Microsoft Research Data Science Summer School.
It has been a widely-reported issue for some time: the position of women and ethnic minorities in the world of technology. Traditionally, both have been vastly under-represented in the industry, leading to accusations of the tech-world being a white man’s world. Various schemes have been launched to counter this, and the Summer School counts among these efforts, being available only to eight NYC students who come from gender, ethnic and socioeconomic groups that are under-represented in tech.
Those chosen will receive a laptop and a $5,000 stipend before then being introduced to the world of big data. The first four weeks of the school will involve learning about the collection of data and then interacting with it. Following this, in the final four weeks, students will be challenged to answer a set of scientific questions using the provided tools and data in order to better prepare them for the world ahead.
Like any good summer school, this isn’t meant to provide a comprehensive introduction to or education in big data, but instead to inspire young minds as to the potential of computer science as a future subject area for study.
The Summer School will run from June 15 to August 7 2015, the deadline for applications is April 15th. To learn more about attending, head here.
Would you attend a Microsoft Research Summer School? Let us know in the comments below.
Further reading: Data Science Summer School, Microsoft, Microsoft Research
