Did you know that less than 25% of all data scientists are women? In an effort to change this statistic and encourage more women to pursue analytical fields such as programming and data science, our women-led data science team trained 14 participants through the "Python Essentials for Women in Life Sciences" course as part of CHRF’s 'Data Science for Women' series.
In the inaugural course of the series, our trainers instructed aspiring women scientists on the importance of programming in life sciences, covering Python's basic terminologies, setting up Workspace with Google Collaboratory, and exploring various data types, operators, and structures. They explored control structures and functions, gained an understanding of introductory statistical concepts, and honed practical data-wrangling skills. Participants wrote optimized code utilizing loops to proficiently analyze biological data, employed libraries such as Matplotlib for data visualization, and leveraged AI tools to enhance their coding abilities. They also acquired hands-on experience through daily exercises, assignments, and a team capstone project.
This workshop spanned 6 days divided between weekends and weekdays. Additionally, we were happy to see that this training was attended by learners of all ages and aspirations, including high schoolers, university students, and even working professionals. They represented 12 national and international institutes including Monash University (Malaysia), BRAC University, Jahangirnagar University, American International University - Bangladesh (AIUB), Bangladesh International Tutorial Limited (BIT), East West University, Jagannath University, University of Dhaka, Viqarunnisa Noon School & College, Asian University of Women, North South University, and Independent University Bangladesh (IUB).
We hope that our ongoing efforts and forthcoming workshops of the “Data Science for Women” series will play a pivotal role in increasing female participation in STEM. Having equipped 14 brilliant participants with the fundamentals of Python programming, we look forward to what our alumni will do next, the data they will analyse, and the complex questions they will find answers to.
