Advertise on podcast: The Data Science Education Podcast

Access the full transcript for this episode “Just because we have Amazon with Kindle doesn’t mean that we don’t also need community libraries or university libraries.”— Julian Pistorius “Research thrives on openness: open-source software, open data, open weights.” — Javier Guaje In the first episode of season 12, we speak with Javier Guaje and Julian Pistorius about their different paths into research computing and their work making powerful computing tools more accessible through Jetstream2. Javier shares how his PhD experience led him into research software engineering, where he now helps researchers across different fields. He discusses how open-source software, shared computing resources, and listening to users can support research, along with how AI is changing the tools researchers need. We also hear from Julian, who moved from industry into research computing and found a community built around helping people solve problems together. He shares how hands-on workshops help students and educators build confidence, emphasizing small teams, real-world projects, and learning from one another. Together, Javier and Julian offer practical advice for students interested in the field, from experimenting with new tools to connecting with researchers and developing the communication skills that make collaboration possible. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “Data science shows up in a lot of places where people don’t expect, but at the end of the day, the goal is the same: using data skills and data tools to help organizations make better decisions.”— Mike Alfaro “If it feels hard, it’s because it’s unfamiliar. The more you do it, the easier it will get, and the more fun you’re going to have.”— Annet Isa In this episode of the UC Berkeley Data Science Education Podcast, we speak with recent data science students Mike Alfaro and Annet Isa about their different paths into the field. Mike shares how a data visualization course at Montgomery College first introduced him to the power of storytelling with data, eventually leading him to internships in marketing analytics, transportation, and environmental work. His story highlights how community college, hands-on technical skills, and networking can open doors into data science careers. We also hear from Annet Isa, who returned to school after two decades of professional experience and found data science through her interest in patterns, prediction, and messy data. She discusses a capstone project using GIS, AI, and aerial imagery to identify solar panel installations in Montgomery County, showing how data science can support real-world environmental work. Together, their stories offer practical advice for students beginning their own journeys, from building projects to reaching out to professionals and staying patient through the learning curve. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “Students can say, I understand what’s in this data, because I’m part of the data.” — Alana Unfried In this episode, we speak with Alana Unfried, Professor of Statistics at Cal State Monterey Bay, about the future of statistics and data science education. Alana shares her path from classical statistics training to undergraduate teaching, educational research, and her work on MASDER, a national project focused on measuring student motivation, attitudes, and learning environments in statistics and data science classrooms. Alana discusses why data science education needs stronger research tools, better shared data, and a clearer understanding of what students are actually experiencing in the classroom. She explains how MASDER helps faculty collect survey data, compare their classes to national trends, and contribute to a larger picture of what is working across institutions. The conversation also explores major gaps in access to data science education, especially between highly selective and more inclusive schools, and how different departments shape what students learn. Alana also reflects on the growing role of generative AI in data science education and why faculty development will be essential as the field continues to evolve. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “Data science, to me, is all about breaking down walls—breaking down walls between disciplines, and breaking down walls between faculty and students.” In this episode, we speak with Kagba Suaray, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Cal State Long Beach, about building a more community-centered vision for data science education. Kagba shares how his work connects data science to local issues in Long Beach and Compton, from public health and housing justice to educational equity, while creating opportunities for students to learn through real, meaningful data. He discusses the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, breaking down barriers that keep students from seeing themselves as “data people,” and designing programs that make data science more inclusive, applied, and community-driven. Kagba also reflects on what it takes to build partnerships, support underrepresented students, and help communities tell their own stories through data. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “A big passion was, how do we think through care? Improvement is fundamentally like a first-order AI problem, not just how to make it easier to do clinical care of today…but how do you make new types of things possible?…If we dig really deep into what’s happening: Why? Why is it caught at this time? Why do we see it in this way? And I think latent into every one of these problems is a frontier AI problem…Through everything—trials and evidence—I think there’s the same type of dynamism we see like in general software, and this kind of pace of change / of improvement that we feel in other parts of AI. Bringing that type of pace to health is the mission of my career, and I’m excited to work on it.” In this episode, we sit down with Adam Yala, Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley and UCSF and co-founder of Voio, to explore how AI is reshaping the future of healthcare. Adam walks through his path from research to building real-world systems, and why computational health is emerging as its own distinct field rather than just an application of AI. We dive into what it actually takes to build in this space, from understanding clinical complexity to navigating challenges like data access and compute. Adam also shares how his experience across academia and startups has shifted his perspective on speed, innovation, and creating meaningful impact. Finally, he offers advice for students and aspiring data scientists, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, curiosity, and focusing on the problems you want to solve in a world where technology is constantly evolving. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “I think we had this feeling that there’s so many students that don’t make it to calculus, and that in the field of data science and the STEM field itself, we really have a gap to fill because we’re missing all of that knowledge and expertise that those students that don’t ever get through calculus would really bring to the field.” In this episode, we speak with Mikahl Banwarth-Kuhn (MBK), Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Cal State East Bay, about reimagining the traditional calculus pathways for today’s data science students. MBK helped develop a new course sequence, Math for Data Science, designed to remove barriers that often prevent students from reaching calculus. She discusses the motivation behind the course and whether traditional pen-and-paper calculus sequences still serve data science students today. MBK advocates for a more intuitive, application-driven approach to help students more deeply understand concepts like derivatives, optimization, and differential equations. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “When you go out and talk to other people, you realize that you become the opposite of being siloed. You really start to realize that you might have been in an echo chamber when you were talking amongst your own colleagues, and when you start to hear other people, you go, Oh, there’s more that I could understand.” Today, we speak with Rachel Saidi, Professor in the Math, Statistics, and Data Science Department and Data Science Program Director at Montgomery College, a two-year college outside Washington, DC. Rachel shares her path from teaching math to statistics to data science, and what it’s like to scale a data science program in the community college setting, with the goal of catering to students of all ages and experiences. She tackles holistic data science education, combining curriculum, experiential learning, speaker series, and more, while also acknowledging difficulties with constraints like faculty capacity and transfer articulation with four-year universities. Finally, she reflects on how professional organizations can help educators find community and stay on top of best practices, and offers advice to educators and learners on how to tackle data science teaching and learning today. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “I think of data as being the base of the scientific pyramid that we have. You literally can’t do science if you don’t have data—and good data. If your data is bad, then your science is going to be bad. So really, at the heart of science and research is having good data that people can find, and people can access and use.” In this week’s episode, we speak with Tasha Marie Snow, a cryosphere researcher who works at the intersection of Earth system science, data science, cloud computing, and open science. Snow is a Co-Founder and Lead Scientist for the CryoCloud cloud-computing community and platform, and works at both NASA and the University of Maryland. She touches on how her work with NASA satellite data, such as ICESat-2 data, focuses on making large, complex datasets more accessible and usable for researchers. She also discusses her role in supporting geoscience researchers to transition their workflows to the cloud via CryoCloud within JupyterHub, as well as the educational benefits of shared computing environments. Listen to Tasha’s talk from JupyterCon in November here, and view the interactive Antarctica map notebook Eric mentioned here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “The goal of the students is not to learn how JupyterHub works. The goal is to learn what’s the topic of the course. So we want to make it as easy as possible to get into an environment where they can learn what they’re actually there to learn, and not get in their way with the tools that they’re supposed to be using.” Welcome to season 11 of the podcast! To kick off the new season, we interviewed Min Ragan-Kelley, Senior Open Infrastructure Architect at Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) and a founding member of JupyterHub. Min discusses the origin story of JupyterHub and how it evolved into the scalable platform that students and researchers alike utilize daily, reflecting on key design decisions that have shaped the platform into what it is today. He describes the importance of the platform to “get out of the way” of students in order to best aid in learning how to operate within a computing environment. Finally, Min touches on his passion for open source projects and what he hopes to come of it in relation to data science education. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “From my own experience, you don’t need to really be the perfect data scientist to do the work. I think, especially at Berkeley, there’s a lot of pressure to know everything. That’s not necessarily the case…For a lot of the types of work that I do and in my industry, you don’t actually need to have or be the most technical person…The thing that’s actually more important, and if you want to get hired in politics or in political work is actually having domain knowledge.” —Ian Castro In the last episode of the season, as always, we sit down with some recent Data Science graduates from UC Berkeley. Today, we talked with Ian Castro, Political Database Manager at Equis Research and former DATA 8 course staff member, who talked about how teaching and building foundational data science courses shaped his commitment to tackling issues like housing, inequality, and political representation. We also talked with Lydia Sidhom, Data Reporter at The Washington Post, who reflected on how her experiences with DATA 8 and working for the Daily Cal helped pull her towards data journalism. Together, Ian and Lydia show how recent graduates are using data to analyze and explain the world! “I think being a journalist—especially a data journalist—requires you to be kind of like a mini expert on every story that you do. So being curious about many different fields and diving into different kinds of data is really a big plus.” —Lydia Sidhom This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “It struck me that academic integrity is a serious issue, but one whose treatment I felt was overly punitive. I don’t want us to have to act as police for our students. Students very much want to do the work, but they often are just ignorant, for whatever reason, of what academic standards at the university level are. And so I wanted to instill this kind of restorative justice framework to make moments where students do falter and they do make mistakes, I wanted to turn those into teachable moments where they could learn, and turn what is a bad situation into perhaps a positive one.” —Taiyo Inoue Today, we speak with Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, co-hosts of My Robot Teacher, which is a podcast affiliated with the California Learning Lab. Sarah and Taiyo discuss how they both bring their respective lenses of comparative literature and mathematics to examine the question and implementation of AI in education, sharing concrete classroom and academic policy uses for LLMs. They touch on academic integrity through a restorative-justice lens, the idea of AI as an opaque cultural archive, and examining higher education as a “slow disaster.” Finally, they end with valuable advice for faculty listening in, giving tips on how to approach AI. To hear more about Sarah and Taiyo’s thoughts about all things AI and education, listen to their podcast, My Robot Teacher! “When we talk about cultural memory, we’re thinking about things that no one individual or social group could hold in their minds. It’s the stuff that is recorded in archives, libraries, cultural practices, arts, etc., and so all of that stuff trained large language models. And so I think you can think about large language models as a kind of archive, but a pretty opaque one.”—Sarah Senk This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “I think the biggest thing I would say is just involve students in real work as early as possible. I think sometimes we have in our mind, oh, we cannot do research with students until they’re advanced in their mathematical studies, but I’ve actually found this isn’t true. I think if there’s a compelling project and students are excited about it, they are really great at learning the tools that they need to do it, and that’s something we as faculty can also help with. Students are able to make really meaningful contributions early in their careers. In terms of teaching or mentoring, I think it’s just about teaching thinking, not tools.” —Kamila Larripa In this episode, we speak with Kamila Larripa, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Data Science Program Lead at Cal Poly Humboldt, along with her former students John Gerving and Jonathan Juarez. Kamila shares about the development of Humboldt’s new Data Science major and its "data for good” mission, as well as her California Education Learning Lab project, which builds a cross-campus community of practice, fosters data literacy, and bring climate justice modules into introductory science courses for students. Students John and Jonathan reflect on their undergraduate research experiences, highlighting how real-world data projects helped identify their interests and build collaboration skills. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “The driving framework of how I think about equity in my classroom is from a paper by Rochelle Gutiérrez, who is a fairly predominant math educator, about equity being of these two axes: the dominant and the critical. It has four main components—access and achievement—which form the dominant axes, and identity and power, which form the critical axes. I think of these four ideas as guiding the way that I think of equity across every classroom I design.” In this episode, we speak with Allison Theobold, Assistant Professor of Statistics at Cal Poly SLO. Allison shares her journey from economics to statistics and data science education, and explore her research on equitable pedagogy. She discusses frameworks for equity and how these inform her teaching practices, as well as how her own experiences as a learner in the age of AI help to inform her own teaching. “For me, a lot of this work comes from me studying and reflecting on how my pedagogy impacts who might be successful in my class, and what types of students may or may not be successful. How can I broaden that more, in terms of assessment, classroom spaces, and access to resources, whether it’s through their peers, me, or outside of class. So thinking about and reflecting on ways in which the way I’m teaching might not be as favorable for some students as opposed to others.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “The biggest challenge for us initially was just, where does data science live? Is it in your math department? Is it in your computer science department? Who's going to teach it? Are you going to have a math faculty? Computer science faculty? And then once you decide where it's going to be, then you have to ensure that you have faculty who are willing to teach, because the class is challenging: it does require some programming, as well as statistical analysis, so it's a lot for a faculty. Usually faculty don't have both of those skills, so that's a challenge.” In this episode, we sit down with Kyla Oh, Acting Dean of Math, Science, and Career Education at Berkeley City College. Kyla shares her unique path from engineering to patent law and now community college leadership. Together, we discuss the evolving role of community colleges in expanding access to data science education, as well as the challenges that come with building out new programs. Kyla discusses the importance of collaboration across departments and institutions as a means of expanding data science across schools, and highlights the power of support programs and internships to keep students motivated. “I treat my students like clients. If my students are not showing up to class, then I feel like, oh, I'm doing something wrong. And the same with our industry partners—I want to be able to bring in industry partners, so I have to treat them like clients. Like, how can we best serve you and ensure that that partnership is mutually beneficial?” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com

Access the full transcript for this episode “I feel like most practicing teachers grew up in the same educational system that I did where you are penalized for getting the wrong answer, and you kind of get into this flow of needing to have the correct answer. And that has really informed the way that they teach—they're afraid to be wrong. And so the number one thing I work with teachers on is really building up their confidence to be flexible in the classroom.” In this episode, we sit down with Hannah Kurzweil, STEM educator and Community Manager for Data Science for Everyone. Hannah shares her unconventional journey to STEM teaching and national community-building in data literacy, and reflects on what it means to support teachers in embracing flexibility and designing interdisciplinary curriculum. Together, we discuss the barriers to bringing data literacy into K-12 classrooms and strategies for building stronger educator communities. “A lot of teachers feel like they're working in silos…a lot of teachers, often because of the median salaries for educators, don't feel like professionals, and that's really hard when you are so passionate about your work and you don't feel like you're able to be a valued member in society for the work that you're doing. And that's why a community of educators is so important, to bring those levels and that sense of community back, and professionalism back, to the classrooms and the classroom teachers.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datascienceeducation.substack.com