Events
Our monthly events feature presentations and discussions from local experts.
News
Our monthly newsletter features links to interesting articles, tutorials, and tools related to data science, analytics, and big data.
About Us
Data Works MD consists of professionals, students, and enthusiasts living and working in the Maryland area that are interested in topics related to data science, data analytics, data products, software engineering, machine learning, and other data engineering topics.
Upcoming
Register for one of our upcoming events!
Using AWS, Terraform, and Ansible to Automate Splunk at Scale
July 18, 2020
'Automate everything' is a key tenet of DevOps. Building a quality, automated infrastructure can be overwhelming and challenging, but with tools such as AWS, Terraform, and Ansible, one can build up a system that can both support the needs of the Sofware Engineers while maintaining the sanity of the DevOps Engineer.
Pitfalls and Challenges of ML-Powered Applications
August 15, 2020
As a field, we often hear about success stories. This is true in research, where a publishing incentive can pressure authors to focus on consistently exceeding state of the art results. It is also true in industry, where companies attempt to attract engineering talent by describing how impressive their production ML systems are. However, every practitioner here knows that in engineering and in ML, the road to success is paved with failures. The field of ML in production is new, and so has a lack of cautionary tales of things that can go wrong with models.
Videos
Recent videos of our events can be found below. More are available at YouTube.
Loyola Student Showcase - Predicting Outcomes and Profitability
This meetup featured two talks. Like many collectibles, comic books and graphic novels have a wide price trajectory. For a comic book business, the earlier you identify which items will rise or fall in price, the more you maximize your profits. The best course of action would be to purchase comics that are destined to appreciate in bulk from a distributor at wholesale prices. To do so, you need a way to identify which comics will appreciate in value. In the first talk, learn how to prdict how much a comic will appreciate when no longer available from the distributor. A
According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), approximately 6.5 million animals enter animal shelters in the United States each year, roughly half dogs and half cats. Only half of these animals get adopted, and about 25% of them are euthanized every year. Although some animals may be euthanized because they are dangerous, there are many innocent animals that lose their lives because they could not find a home. In this talk, learn what traits impact whether an animal will be adopted.
Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services
An understanding of psychology—specifically the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces—is perhaps the single most valuable non-design skill a designer can have. The most elegant design can fail if it forces users to conform to the design rather than working within the “blueprint” of how humans perceive and process the world around them. Join Jon as he talks about this book Laws of UX, a guide that explains how you can apply key principles in psychology to build products and experiences that are more intuitive and human-centered.
Integrating Blockchain and Traditional Web
Blockchain offers transparency, fraud prevention, and immutable ground truth for the data management part of any application. While it is a general-purpose technology, there are some uses within the enterprise that are more practical right now: system/physical access controls, identity management...
Onboard to the Cloud with AWS Cloud9 and Python
AWS Lambda functions are the building blocks for creating serverless applications on AWS. In this online training, you use Python to develop Lambda functions that communicate with essential AWS services: API Gateway, SQS, SNS, Step Functions, and Cloudwatch functions.
Newsletter
Interesting articles, tools, and tutorials. More are available at our newsletter archive.
Data Works MD June 2020 Issue
AI insurance, pandemic models, Laws of UX, ...
Data Works MD May 2020 Issue
COVID-19 data sets, AI changing work, DevOps for ML, Tonks, PyCaret, ...
Partners
We are proudly supported by the following organizations.
Erias Ventures was founded to serve its customers with an entrepreneurship mindset. We value taking action, having the courage to commit, and persevering through challenges and failures.
Varen Technologies is a trusted industry leader delivering innovative solutions in cyber security, analytics, augmented intelligence, Agile Software Development and IT/maintenance for our partner clients including the federal government, Department of Defense, Homeland Security and other Cyber Defense organizations.
Clarity Business Solutions specializes in providing practical Software Engineering and Technical Management services. We focus on supporting customers through strong business partnerships.