Center for Data, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences

March 1, 2022Center for Data, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences Fair

Date/Time: Tuesday, 4/5/22, 5-7pm
Location: Ramapo College, Trustees Pavilion 1

Join us for the Data, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences Fair on April 5th, 2022! This event will feature keynote speaker Dr. Shawn Simpson, Principal Data Scientist at BlackRock AI Labs, who will share practical tips gleaned from her career as a Data Scientist in finance, media, and advertising. Following the keynote speech, attendees will have the chance to view posters showcasing Ramapo students’ research projects in Data, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences. Attendees will be able to network with Ramapo students and faculty, as well as prospective employers who may be looking to hire interns or full-time employees. Awards will be given for the best posters.

This event is open to current and prospective students, faculty, staff, and members of the public.

This page will be updated as more information about the event is announced

Schedule

5:00-5:05pm Guests arrive
5:05pm-5:10pm Welcome remarks (President Cindy Jebb)
5:10-5:20pm Welcome and overview of Ramapo’s bachelor and master degree programs in Data, Mathematical, and Computational Sciences (Scott Frees and Amanda Beecher)
5:20-6:15pm Keynote speech: “Field notes for future data scientists: tips from a career in industry” by
Dr. Shawn Simpson, Principal Data Scientist, BlackRock AI Labs. See additional information below.
6:15-7:00pm Student poster session and networking event

Keynote Speaker

Speaker: Dr. Shawn Simpson, Principal Data Scientist, BlackRock AI Labs

Title: Field notes for future data scientists: tips from a career in industry

Abstract: When training to be a data scientist there is an emphasis on data analysis and modeling
techniques — but what happens once you are out in industry? This talk will provide practical suggestions based on my career in data science, with examples drawn from applications in news and media, finance, and advertising technology. Topics will include going deep with data, understanding uncertainty, joining forces with engineers, taking a product mindset, knowing your end user, and architecting end-to-end systems.

Speaker bio: Shawn Simpson, Ph.D. is Principal Data Scientist in BlackRock AI Labs, where she leads an initiative that builds AI-powered decision tools for traders. Previously she was Senior Data Scientist at Tapad, a cross-device advertising technology firm. She built large-scale predictive models for telco applications using Scala, Spark/PySpark, Python, Hadoop MapReduce, and Google Cloud Platform technologies, and acted as lead data scientist on cross-functional product teams. Prior to that Shawn was Head of Data Science at Dow Jones. She was responsible for multivariate paywall testing on WSJ.com, predictive models for subscriptions and cancellations, company-wide data science training,
and internal consulting for newsroom, finance, and customer teams.

Before joining industry Shawn was an Assistant Professor of Statistics at Columbia University. Her research focused on analysis of recurrent events, Bayesian methods for large-scale data, and post-
marketing drug safety surveillance. She has a Ph.D. in Statistics from Columbia University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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February 7, 2022How to fail your tech interview successfully

Feb 22nd at 6-7pm in ASB 332

Computer Science is hard. Being a Software Engineer is hard. Translating your computer science skills into a successful Software Engineer gig after college shouldn’t be hard. After interviewing close to 100 candidates at all levels for Google, Facebook and Manticore, Dobri Yordanov has a few tips and tricks to share, as well as pitfalls to avoid. Join us if you’d like to hear about them, be it out of curiosity or practicality. Everyone is welcome!

Biography: Dobri is a Ramapo College ’15 graduate, originally from Bulgaria. Since graduating, he’s built a career as a Software Engineer and a self-described Prototype Wizard in large tech working for Google and Facebook, and most recently landing in the game industry as a principal engineer at Manticore Games. As of ’21, you can occasionally catch him in Ramapo teaching some of our Computer Science classes. He likes long walks on the beach in VR and philosophical ponderings about the nature of our existence and ethics in technology. He will also absolutely listen to you about your favorite algorithm or design paradigm – he is 100% that kind of dork.

Categories: Lecture Series, Uncategorized

November 3, 2021Data Science in Theory and Practice: Techniques for Big Data Analytics and Complex Data Sets

Congratulations to Ramapo’s Data Science Professor Osei Tweneboah. Dr. Tweneboah has co-authored the textbook Data Science in Theory and Practice: Techniques for Big Data Analytics and Complex Data Sets recently published by Wiley. This book is perfect for data practitioners, undergraduate and graduate students in Data Science, Business Analytics, and Statistics programs. It provides a comprehensive treatment of the mathematical and statistical models useful for analyzing data sets arising in various disciplines, like banking, finance, health care, bioinformatics, security, education, and social services.

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November 1, 2021Lecture Series: Data is the New Oil- Why Now?

Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 5:00 PM until 6:00 PM – Eastern Standard Time

Ramapo College is proud to host a Graduate Lecture Series about a variety of interesting topics throughout the year.

During the RCNJ Lecture Series: Data is the New Oil- Why Now, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from Arnab Mukhopadhyay, Head of Enterprise Architecture at Valley Bank more about exploring a systemic or architecture-based viewpoint on exploring various aspects of data – ranging from an overview on data technologies, data integration, data analytics, data governance, and industry usage of data.

For more information about this particular topic, or questions about the event, please email Professor Scott Frees at sfrees@ramapo.edu and we will be happy to assist you.

You won’t want to miss this exciting and informative Graduate Lecture Series Event.

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October 11, 2021Using Machine Learning to Analyze and Predict the Movement of Horseshoe Crabs in Long Island Sound - Recording

We want to thank Dr. Samah Senbel for the wonderful talk on using Machine Learning to analyze the movement of Horseshoe Craps in the Long Island Sounds. In case you missed it, her talk can be viewed here.

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January 21, 2021From Data Ethics to Data Justice: The Challenge of Building Better Worlds through Data Science

Dr. Andrea Pitts, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte will be describing this new new branch of study within applied ethics, a subfield in professional ethics that includes areas of research and practice such as computing ethics, media ethics, and biomedical ethics. This new branch of applied ethics responds, specifically, to novel applications and technologies for data storage, maintenance, and processing that add new layers to the study of morally relevant considerations within information ethics, business ethics, and AI ethics, for example.

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August 22, 2020Convolutional Neural Networks for Face Recognition

We are happy to announce that Dr. Ausif Mahmood has rescheduled his talk on Convolutional Neural Networks this fall virtually.

Dr. Mahmood is the Director of The School of Engineering at the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, CT. His research areas involve Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning – bridging ties between Computer Science and Data Science.

Please join us virtually on September 17th at 1:00pm – 2:00pm. Registration is required, registrants will receive web conferencing information a few days prior to the event.

You’ll also have the opportunity to learn more about Ramapo’s new Data Science programs, launching this coming fall.

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August 6, 2020MSDS - Fall 2020 Course Delivery Update

As we look forward to the start of our Fall 2020 semester, we wanted to share with you our plans for course delivery starting in September.

As you hopefully know, Ramapo College is required to adhere with the State of New Jersey’s phased reopening plan. This plan identifies which activities and classes colleges and universities may conduct on campus, and the precautions we must take.

Based on current public health conditions as of August 3rd, NJ is currently still in Phase 2 – which prohibits on-campus meetings for all courses other than laboratory (i.e. biology labs) and studio (i.e. theatre) meetings. Regrettably, this means our MSDS courses will not meet on campus this coming semester, and will be conducted virtually.

As you know, MSDS had planned for all three of our Fall courses (DATA 601, MATH 570, and CMPS 530) to meet for approximately one hour each Thursday evening, with the rest of the course instruction asynchronous and online. Our virtual instruction format will be quite similar – each of the three MSDS courses will include synchronous WebEx (or Zoom) meetings on Thursday evenings, as scheduled. The individual instructors for each course will soon be in contact with you concerning the details for their particular course. Each of us have experience teaching in this format, and while we prefer us all to be on campus in the classroom, we are confident the mix of synchronous and asynchronous online instruction will be a success.

International Students: Please contact the Roukema Center, specifically Rajesh Adhikari (adhikar@ramapo.edu), to discuss your student visa status. There have been a number of USCIS delays due to the pandemic, along with specific federal policy changes concerning visa status for students in 100% online programs. Rajesh Adhikari can discuss your options with you.

Many of you have already received a bill for the Fall 2020 semester. There are three fees associated with these bills that require your attention:

Health Insurance Reminder: As indicated in a previous email, your bill will include healthcare insurance students may purchase through Ramapo. If you already have health insurance, you may opt out. Click here to opt out or email the Office of Student Accounts at studentaccts@ramapo.edu.

Parking Lab Fees: Since we will not have classes on campus, most of you will not utilize campus parking unless coming to campus for other reasons. If you do not intend on coming to campus, you may complete a waiver to avoid parking fees. Parking charges are NOT REMOVED from student accounts; they are offset by the credit of the waiver transaction. STUDENT ACCOUNTS WILL REFLECT BOTH THE CHARGE AND THE CREDIT.

Course Lab Fees: We are in the process of reviewing all courses across the campus to determine which courses will still have computer lab fees – due to their dependence on remote / cloud hosted software that the College maintains whether students are physically present or not. Lab Fees for courses that do not fit into this category will be credited to your account. In all likelihood, MSDS courses will not have a lab fee. Please be patient as we work through this process.

As a reminder to all, the Fall schedule can be found here. For those of you who have not yet registered for your courses, or have not set up your Ramapo College email, please take a look at Admissions’ guide for admitted students. To complete the MSDS in 2 years, we advise students to register for DATA 601, CMPS 530, and MATH 570 in the Fall semester. DATA 601 and CMPS 530 are of particular importance, as they are prerequisites for courses you will take in the Spring ‘21 semester.

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