UVA Data Points Podcast: ¡Viva la Ciencia de Datos en UVA!

Data science is an incredibly diverse and global field of study and practice. In order to tackle some of our most challenging issues ranging from climate change to cognition, we need data and data scientists from all over the world to make advances in research, technology and innovation. 

The School of Data Science is proud of its global community, and this podcast episode features faculty and student Spanish-speaking natives. The episode is recorded entirely in Spanish with an English translation provided below.    

To talk about their research interests and the importance of having diverse, global perspectives in the field of data science, this episode of UVA Data Points features a conversation by Javier Rasero, Assistant Professor of Data Science, and two University of Virginia data science students: Marco Gutiérrez Chavez is a first-year Ph.D. student from Peru and Mercedes Mora-Figueroa de Liñán is an M.S. in Data Science student from Spain.

Featured Guests:

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Javier Rasero

Assistant Professor of Data Science

Javier Rasero is a physicist and data scientist interested in obtaining the maximum amount of information from the brain. His research focuses on developing and applying new pipelines and methodologies to efficiently integrate multimodal brain data, aiming to predict and explain individual differences in both healthy and neuropathological populations.

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Marco Gutierrez Chavez

Ph.D. in Data Science student

Marco is interested in exploring the potential of machine learning for image generation of real-life situations. In particular, he hopes to explore how can realistic images/videos be generated from a simple textual prompt. Marco holds a Bachelor's in Economics from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and was a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Columbia University.

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Mercedes Mora-Figueroa de Liñán

M.S. in Data Science student

Mercedes, a graduate student in the M.S. in Data Science residential program at the University of Virginia. After working for three years at Microsoft in Madrid, Spain, her hometown, she decided to take a year off to pursue a master’s in data science in the U.S. Mercedes is also a student ambassador of the program.

Translation transcription:

Javier Rasero: Hello, hello, hello to all our listeners, Hispanic, Hispanic American, or of Spanish tongue. My name is Javier Rasero, I am an Assistant Professor of Data Science at the University of Virginia. Well, first of all, I would like to apologize for this Spanish accent that isn’t the most representative of the Hispanic world, but again… Also, sorry in case I speak a little fast. I will try to lower my speech rate since I tend to be a person who speaks fast, but again, I’ll try my best. As I was saying, I am Javier Rasero, I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Data Science at the University of Virginia. In Spain, this position would be Assistant Professor, Doctor, or Adjunct Professor. In Hispanic-America I suppose it would be a similar title. I have been at this School about a year, before I was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was there for around 4 years. Before that, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher for another 3 years, split between Italy and Spain. First, 2 years in Bari, in the Southern part of Italy. And later, at the Biobizkaia Health Research Institute that’s in the city of Barakaldo, in the Basque Country. This is where I’m from, and well, you can find it in Northern Spain. To give you a little bit more context, I am a physicist. I actually did my PhD thesis in particle physics and cosmology. But currently, I dedicate myself to research in autism and epilepsy. And above all, the development of advanced methodologies of typical predictive statistics for integrating the different multimodal data that we gather from the brain, with the objective of being able to better our understanding and comprehension of, well of, these neurodivergent and neurological conditions that are autism and epilepsy. So, in addition, I am currently very interested in investigating, through the data of the brain, particularly neuroimaging, the role of this organ in what it means to be physically healthy. I am an Assistant Professor at a teaching level. During my time as a Postdoctoral Researcher, I taught classes in statistics and right now, specifically since I joined this School of Data Science at the University of Virginia, I am teaching classes primarily in the undergraduate level. For example, in the last semester, I was the main instructor  of the projects course in which students worked in groups to apply their knowledge of data science in different research projects. Currently, I am teaching the programming course in our undergrad program, which is primarily trying to teach the necessary programming skills needed by a data scientist. And next year, I am going to be teaching Advance Machine Learning.  Anyways, that was a little of my background, I am going to be the moderator of this informal conversation. Besides me I have Marco Gutierrez Chavez and Mercedes Mora-Figueroa de Liñán. Both are Hispanic students here in the School of Data Science  at the University of Virginia. The idea is, through primarily firsthand experiences, they can provide insights for the Hispanic community or Hispanic listeners, about what our School has to offer them. Anyways, I am practically going silent hereon and I am going to pass the microphone to my friends and coworkers, Mercedes and Marco. Firstly, so our listeners can get to know you a little more, I think we should start first with you telling us a little about where you’re from and what you’re studying at the School of Data Science here at the University of Virginia. So, I don’t know which of you two wants to start, but well…

Mercedes Mora-Figueroa de Liñán: I’ll start.. Well, my name is Mercedes. I am a Master’s student at the School of Data Science, here at the University of Virginia, UVA. And I am from Madrid, Spain. I studied biomedical engineering at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid. And when I graduated, in my final year, I did internships in software development which I realized I liked a lot and that I was very good at it. So, I followed some paths to specialize myself in data science, which was very interesting as its applications were growing a lot at the time, and that opened up a lot of doors for me, leading me to work at Microsoft. I was working at Microsoft for 3 years as a Technology Consultant. There, I primarily implemented projects for firms, technological projects, and I was very focused on the analysis of people’s data. How could we improve collaboration, social media, communication; taking those insights from the data for firms to see if they could make improvements. And in my third year, I decided that I wanted to pivot to a more specific data science role, in products. And I realized that I needed, or that it was good idea to have the Master, so I thought it was a good opportunity, as I had been working 3 years, to take a year and go to the Americas, The United States, and get my Master’s in Data Science and that brought me here to UVA where I started in June, so more or less I’ve been doing this program for 5 months.  

Javier: Very good, very good, we can see here that this is a background that comes from business, would you say?  

Mercedes: Yes

Javier: And you’ve gone back to academia a bit?

Mercedes: Mhm

Javier: Do you, Marco, have a similar background? The same path?

Marco Gutierrez Chavez: It was a little bit different. I was researching for quite a bit. My career, well, I am an economist. I studied at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Perú. I always had a big interest in computer science and mathematics. In reality, I started studying computer science, which after my first year I decided to switch and apply these tools to other things. So I began as an economist and Iworked in various places. First in some laboratories of Peruvian organizations, after I was in the World Bank supervising some projects about the intersection between natural language processing and development economics . And later I started as a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Columbia University, working as a project manager for research in the same field. It turns out,  development economics, since pfft after 2010, 2008 maybe, has become intense in the usage of data. Not only to develop public policy but also to evaluate them. And given that the quantity of data is plentiful and rich and can be of use in politics, there was that switch in the field of economics to find those tools that can allow you to manage lots of data and apply them to aid in developing countries. I was working in those fields for a time, and after a while I was selected for a Pre-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University. I worked and researched with some professors that I had already worked with previously. And what we had was a big project in Peru. We tried, we associated with an agency that represented the Ministry of Corruption. It was called the…

Javier: The ministry of what?

Marco: The Ministry of Corruption, an equivalent.  

Javier: Very well

Marco: It was called “La Contraloría”

Javier: The truth, we need one of those in Spain

Marco: Ha-ha … The problem that they were trying to resolve was that there were a lot of complaints, lots of them, but there was a finite level of analysts in charge of processing each one of them. These complaints were in text, and the text as I mentioned earlier, is lots, lots of data. They can give good indicators of corruption, development, etc. What we were discussing in our group was, can we find an algorithm of this kind, language processing, that can produce a proxy on corruption that we can give to the analysts to make their jobs easier. And a way to measure their efficiency. So, I was working on those projects for a couple years and it turns out that the more I focused on the technological side, the more I became interested in it, comprehending its methodologies. And that was why I decided to instead of applying for a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Economics. I looked for other paths to specialize myself in these methodologies that are.. Very interesting.  

Javier: Mhm … so you are a Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Data Science here at the University of Virginia.  

Marco: Yes

Javier: And here we have Mercedes, who is a Master’s student or Maestria’, as some of you may call it in Hispanic America. Here we have the two visions, well as you can see, the different trajectories that they followed to get to where they are now. But, what would you both say, I think you both mentioned something briefly. What would you say has attracted you the most to this PhD program  and  Master’s, here at the School of Data Science at the University of Virginia?  

Marco: Umm, well… I would say that it’s the possibility of exploring various areas. Here, this program isn’t a Direct Match program, where you have to work directly with a professor, instead you have the option to work with the professor you want to, as long as they have the space to accommodate you. And there are many incentives to rotate amongst them. I think that the ability to try different things, to find your own path, is very interesting. And it is unusual in these types of programs.

Javier: I agree. As a, as a, as a… as a member of the docent group, it is something that, well I just got here a year ago, so it’s not like I’ve had a huge part in developing the program but its something that we are especially proud of, of  giving Pre-Doctoral Fellows the liberty to explore various topics before having to make a decision as we know that takes time, and each person needs to dedicate time to thinking things over on what they like. That’s, that’s very important. And you Mercedes, what is what brought you here to this School?

Mercedes: Well, as I was saying, at the time of pivoting to the role of data scientist I realized that I still needed time to develop. A Master’s is a very good option, especially in data science where it’s evolving every year. We have to learn things from different fields, you need working knowledge of statistics, a good base of modeling, and programming. And specifically, UVA's program, what attracted me was that it runs 11 months. I was looking for something between 1 and 2 years, as that would give me more time to develop than the typical 9 month program without having to exceed 2 years that would have been much more intense. Another thing, an important component was the Capstone Project. The program is very focused on practical application of the models and so half the program, one key course is the Capstone. whichis a final project that you create with a sponsor, very focused on the business, and at the end it brings lots of value to your resume. When you’re applying to jobs, it brings so much value. I think having a product that you have developed for months with the help of faculty and a sponsor, is, is, something so powerful.  

Javier: It is my understanding that you have already chosen your Capstone project.  

Mercedes:  I have chosen my capstone, yes.

Javier:  Can you tell us a little more about what you’re going to do?

Mercedes:  Well… I had lots of interesting options but in the end I got my first pick, which was extremely competitive. It was offered by a sponsor from the University of Darden, also from UVA. And it consists in analyzing the script of, I don’t know how to say script in Spanish, the “guion,” of many TV shows, to try to predict the probability, or in what moment, and if it is going to happen, being canceled. So, you have distinct scripts, you do an emotional analysis of them, a sentimental analysis, and then you extract the distinct sentiment of certain acts. And you base your prediction on that to see what path the script is following and what the likelihood is of that script being liked by the public long-term.  

Javier:  How good, good.

Mercedes:  So, we are still defining the scope because there's a lot of information and so much we can focus on, we can add more data, and…

Javier:  Well… for our listeners so that you can be in the loop. These Capstones- we have the same thing, in the, in the undergraduate program, well something similar= are research projects, in which there is a sponsor, which can be internal to UVA or external too, businesses, who propose a research project. The students, in this case, Master’s students, get to pick the project they are most interested in. They work in groups of 3 or 4, I think. They have a professor or a docent, assigned to them from the School of Data Science , one of my coworkers who helps them develop and guide their project to successfully complete this project. With the possibility of being able to present their findings at a conference, no? Maybe even publishing?

Mercedes:  Yes, it depends on the project but that is the objective.  

Javier:  Mhm, that’s good. For our listeners, Mercedes is part of the Residential Master’s here, but we also have the online program which is more for.. is longer… or can adapt better to the needs of the student. So, the classes are online, they are also asynchronous, so we can say it’s oriented more towards those already in the workforce  but who also want to continue the betterment of their studies. So, who knows, in the future they might have better exit opportunities. Yep…

Mercedes:  Exactly. Also the school  is growing a lot this year  the residential program is around 70, but for next year it’s going up to around 100, if I’m not mistaken.  

Javier:  Mhm, mhm, that’s very good, very good. Well, that was a bit about the Master’s. We’re going back to research and the PhD  program. Marco is a 1st-year PhD student, so tell us Marco a little bit about what you’re currently  doing ?  

Marco:  Apart from my classes, right?

Javier:  Yes, that’s correct. PhD students also have to take classes for I believe two years, correct?

Marco:  Yes, two years. It depends. If you come with a Master’s it’s one year, without a Master’s is two years. I still have two years.

Javier:  Haha… what do you find yourself doing now? What classes are you taking, for example?

Marco:  I am taking a course on data engineering, machine learning… what else do we have… computer science, and one more course that is slipping my… ah theory, theory! Well, they cover their bases. Theory is differential calculus, machine learning, you know, they are the basic algorithms. Something you learn that slowly gets more complicated. Later you enter deep learning, and the like. Computer science if referring more or less to data structures and algorithms, basically. And data engineering, which I have forgotten to mention, is like a pipeline. A line, a series of scripts, tools, to process data.

Javier:  Yes, because something that’s important about data science is that, from when you collect the data to when you analyze it, there’s a lot of intermediate steps that not a lot of people are conscious of. But normally, the data one collects are very noisy, have lots of missing values, lots of data are missing, so you have to build lots of intermediate pipelines so we can begin to analyze them in a satisfactory way.  

Marco:  Of course, of course. I would say that alongside  classes, I have some projects that are still in-progress that I am working on with professor Tom Hartvigsen and an engineering professor named Jundong Li. They are still in progress.  

Javier:  Are they in charge of, possibly things related to large language models?

Marco:  Tom is in charge of large language models. He also is working in the field that I am working in, it’s called “open set recognition.” Basically what it does, it's a group of algorithms that help you detect when a sample is inside your distribution, lets say, certain data points, you have 10 tags, and what these algorithms tell you is, okay these data points that you are testing this model with, belong to those 10 categories, and if so, which ones? And it will also tell you whether your data points don’t belong in any of the categories, the model will tell you that. So, I am working on a project in those areas with them that can be applied to anything from language to (unknown).

Javier:  Are you going to do, are these the projects for  the summer?

Marco:  No, no, no. This is a separate project . This is an opportunity given by the program. If you want to work with a professor, you can. You just send an email, and usually they have room to discuss with you and give you advice and meet regularly with you. It’s very nice.  

Javier:  Yep, yep, that’s very nice. There are also many opportunities for PhD students. Recently, last week, a student contacted me, a PhD student as well, because within the program, well for students only, they have the possibility each summer, to do rotations within different research areas with a variety of professors. So, it’s an opportunity we give to all students each summer so they can try something different, especially before third year, which is when they have to decide formally who they want as an advisor, a mentor, and what is going to be their research topic. But before then, within those first 2 years we give them that opportunity to rotate between different professors, different areas of research, so they can try them. Formally in the summer, these rotations open up. But we have people, like Marco here, who start contacting professors early, well us professors we normally are always eager to take in students and work with them. So it’s a very receptive  environment, with many opportunities for all students. Just like that for the Master’s students. I don’t know Mercedes… have you had the chance to do research?

Mercedes:  To what? To research? Well, yes, as you said, there are lots of opportunities. It’s also a little about what you do with them, no? If you proactively search for them, since there’s so many, you have to go out and proactively search to find some within the chaos. Among others, I had the opportunity to talk with you, no? Hahaha… A TA-ship for the next semester. Also, I have recently gotten a part-time job in the Environmental Institute at UVA. They have lots of data about who they’re giving scholarships to. I'm helping with how to organize it, how to clean it, making reports and creating the infrastructure that they don’t have. I am helping them a lot with that.

Javier:  Especially with your previous experience, I imagine you’ll be of great help!

Mercedes:  Yes, yes! They were looking for someone with experience in power AI, which I had. So, I like the fact that I can bring a lot of value to the university and keep learning, no? And also, I am interested in finding opportunities, specifically internships, those provided by businesses, internships. It’s something I’m proactively looking for and something that I know is available.  

Javier:  An interesting feature about our Master’s program is that you have the opportunity to do internships, in the summer, the School in particular, tries to, if a student is interested in company internships,  it has connections and , and, and, it is very proactive in finding companies where you can develop your knowledge in from a point of view more business-like.  

Mercedes:  Yes, it’s a very important point that caught my attention for this program. Career Services and all that they help you with. Because, as I was saying, there are so many offerings for positions in data science, which is a good thing but also complicated, no? Finding those positions, seeing which ones you qualify for or not. So, career services has a newsletter which every week, or 2 weeks, they send out a list of interesting positions in strong companies and that always helps you, no? Many of those positions I didn’t initially have  on my list, and suddently there were data scientist roles at Duolingo, TikTok, all this really helps you on the job hunt.  

Javier:  Yep, yep. That’s something that, that, many students who just graduated from our program, students just like, well, we don’t have any official graduated students, PhD students, we don’t have any yet. But 1, 1 is telling me.

Marco:  Well what I wanted to say was that there are similar opportunities within PhD programs. It’s something that happens commonly with artificial intelligence or data science, that research is very important to do, not only within universities but within companies. For example, some students have gone to Amazon Web Services, and…

Javier:  You’re talking about Master’s students or PhD students?

Marco:  PhD students of course. Because, apart from research, or the pipeline from research to PhD, in an area like computer science, artificial intelligence, we go to areas where these problems we research originate from and where solutions first originate. For example, problems like recommendation systems. Netflix is a place where solutions to these systems’ problems were first developed. Part of these big research labs is to go and do work there. It’s very important and the program favors this. There are various cases where students were able to do that. And it is very aligned with research.  

Javier:  Yes, I agree.

Mercedes:  Yes, that’s something that has caught my attention too. Looking for employment, the number of positions available for PhDs. Positions aren’t just for academia, for example, Meta the highest data scientist roles are only available to PhD, there is a lot of research being looked for.  

Javier:  Yes, the people that graduated only with the Master’s program from here have a ton of success in the employment world, I don’t know if it’s 100%, but it’s above 90% for sure employment rates. Well, let’s change the topic. I think the audience is interested in knowing, especially from you guys-well me too but you guys are the protagonists- about a different culture and education system, such as those in  Peru or Spain. For you guys, what are the biggest differences you have noticed? How are you guys acclimating to living in a different culture and education system, the American one? Mercedes?

Mercedes:  Well… these cultures are very distinct. They have their good things and bad things. These differences, you have to find how to, adapt to those worse things  than in Spain, find what good things you can take from. For example, I have noticed people here are a bit more individualistic, and in the Hispanic culture, like in Spain, we are a collectivistic society, no? So, the good side is that people here, from what I can understand, have fewer insecurities, so when something interests them, they specialize a lot in that. For example, there are clubs for absolutely everything. There’s a club for observing squirrels, did you know that?!? It’s that, the people here, the concept in Spain that we have that you’re a something of this and that, here you stop the complexity and it's amazing. You have the passion for something, you can share that with other people.  

Javier:  Yes, here they value your passions more. Yes yes, how you are as a person, your identity.  

Mercedes:  Exactly. So I think that, that is very good. You come here and you come to that conclusion, it sparks exploration, there’s clubs for everything that you can join. You don’t come to university just to learn, you have your chess club, your movie club, and later they have events constantly. So, it’s something very overwhelming, but it’s a big positive. It’s something I’ve enjoyed a lot.  

Javier:  Yep, I have also experienced the same thing. I can, I can relate to that because we come from the same culture effectively. What about you Marco?

Marco:  I didn’t know that there was a movie club?!? How crazy, I have to look for that.  

Javier:  It’s not even the strangest one, there’s stranger ones. It’s a very normal one. Haha

Marco:  I can make my response in 2 parts. I think the culture changes so much within this country, it’s so huge. When I was in NYC, I felt as if there was a big similarity with how things are in Lima. It is a very individualistic culture. People are doing their own thing. It’s very indifferent. Something happens on the street and it's a thief, a thief, he does his thing and people keep on walking. They don’t interact with that person. Unlike here, people are very friendly. It surprised me a lot. I am not used to the New Yorkian culture, which is different and competitive. Here, I really like that. I think it’s something that has allowed me to adapt quicker to the city maybe.  

Javier:  And at the educational level? Since you’ve been here, how many years have you been here?

Marco:  Around 2 years.

Javier:  No but I mean in the United States.

Marco:  2 years here in the U.S. A couple months here, 2 months? I got here in August. September, October…

Javier: On education, do you notice a difference between the educational system, between here and Lima?

Marco:  Well, that’s a little different. My school was special. It was a combination of things where I studied freshman year, a mix of liberal arts, a traditional school. The first 2 years were whatever you wanted. For liberal arts, liberal arts. For science, calculus, chemistry, etc. And after 2 years of general studies, specialized classes. Not a lot of freedom. but a regular amount. A regular amount of freedom. Each class was extremely strict. When I got here that was very different. I was used to having a problem set every week, having to read a certain amount every week, an exam all the time. Here, there’s not a lot of exams. For the PhD program, there’s what, 1 or 2 exams for both years in a course?

Javier:  Well, you have to keep in mind that’s typical of a PhD program. The important thing is that you get certain knowledge, certain skills, it is supposed that you already came with some.

Marco: Of course, but there's also a difference between economics. My 1st year in economics it was an absurd amount of problem sets. It was such an exorbitant amount that you would work in groups and even then it was rare you completed them. Test after test after test. It’s very different. It surprises me in a good way. Having the freedom to have more time, not just to focus on the exams, but to focus on whether you know the subject. Applying it on a final project, applying it on a final project that may be published. A PhD program should not be just about making sure you always get good grades, but about what you want to do research in, a paper, which the university does a good job of facilitating.  

Javier:  And you Mercedes? I suppose you talk with your friends and some are doing a Master’s. Is there a difference in the way you study? The way that classes work? Exams?

Mercedes:  Yes, a little similar. Here. Well, the relationship with the professor is very unique. You are much closer with them I think. You can get closer with them. They have office hours. I don’t recall that in the Spanish university. Also in the Spanish university, it’s a lot more exams and lectures. Here it’s a lot more practical application.  

Javier:  Yes I agree. I, at least in my experience at a Spanish university, it’s perhaps more hierarchical. A little more different in roles, there is a separation between students and professors. It doesn’t happen everywhere, it depends on the professor. Because it’s a more modern time, things are changing, but I’ve also noticed things here are different…

Mercedes:  Yes, the Spanish hierarchies are something that I disliked. I think a professor said something “here we have closer relationships with our students” I don’t know why he said that as most students are American, but “ here we have close student-professor relationships, so please come to me with any issues you have.”  

Javier:  Well, that  also speaks  highly of , well I don’t know, I don’t know much more about, I'm not conscious about all things that occur in the USA. But I also think it’s a good thing about the School of Data Science . It’s a very close environment. A very youthful atmosphere, some very youthful professors. So I think we try to highlight our close relationships, and highlight a trustworthy environment with our students. It is something, we try to show you guys. I think it’s a good quality of our School, I would say.  

Mercedes:  Yes, yes, yes. It is contagious. Even in the new building. It gives off those vibes. Yes, very exciting.  

Javier:  Well Marco, is there something that surprised you about your time here at the School of Data Science? Or at the University of Virginia?

Marco:  For good or for bad? For good or bad? Well, for good for now. The health center. When I was in New York things were different, I had my insurance, I had to pay to see a doctor, the medicines were not covered. It was a small quantity but it adds up. Here though…

Javier:  We asked for something good…

Marco:  Wait, wait I’m getting there. Unlike here, I got here and I had to go to the medical center for a reason, and they told me I didn’t have to pay that it was covered. When it was my turn to pay medication, it was $4. Not only that, they have various services that they offer that you don't have to pay for. You just have to go online, make a consultation, and then they tell you lots of things. It’s great.  

Javier:  Me, since I work for UVA. I also have access to these medical services. They are very efficient, very quick. I am very happy with them. What about you Mercedes? Any positive experiences? Hahah

Mercedes:  Haha, me personally I think all my experiences until now have been positive. The things that have surprised me the most, which is again something related to health, is the resources the university has for everything. For example, not just events, conferences, networking, I applied to be a Student Ambassador, and the program…

Javier:  What is that? Can you tell us a little bit more?

Mercedes:  Yes, Student Ambassadors, what they do is do a bit of outreach for potential students in data science. What the program is about .

Javier:  What you’re doing right now? Haha  

Mercedes:  Haha exactly, what I’m doing right now. Basically. So, you do tours of the new building, you show it to alumni, and employment fairs. When you do that, you become aware of the resources that you have available to you. And if you have ideas, you can easily get faculty, the school, to propose an idea that has practical use for others. They want to use their resources to help. It’s something that has shocked me for the better. The possibilities you have.

Javier:  Yes, yes, I agree. Normally, the School of Data Science and the University of Virginia, care a lot about spreading the word of their values and what they can offer to future students, for example some of you listening are potentially future students. And as foreigners, I suppose you guys have your own communities, group of friends, what have you done, well this is to give advice to potential students, what did you guys do to find your communities here at the University of Virginia, and how difficult have you found that to be?

Mercedes:  Well me, I would invite more Hispanics to do their Master’s because they are missing. But in the end, thankfully, in the American universities, people come from various states, not everyone is from Virginia, so people are very open to making new connections. Because of that I have easily made friends in class. And the people want to meet new people, to connect, there are lots of plans, plus the university is in Charlottesville, which is constructed in turn around the university so when you walk around the city you can see students. It’s a city of students.  

Javier:  Yes, yes, yes. I suppose you have lots of plans on the weekends, lots of things to do?

Mercedes:  Yes, for example there are always events. Right now, Halloween is coming up. I’m going to watch a movie, paint pumpkins, there’s a lot of everything. If you want it, you’ll find it. It’s incredible.  

Javier: And you Marco?

Marco:  I still have to work on that. I agree a lot with Mercedes. I invite more Hispanic speaking people to come to the PhD program here. In that sense, I have an advantage in the sense that I was in New York, which helped a lot with my English. I tried to find friends who spoke Spanish, but I couldn’t find them. Odd because half the city speaks Spanish but at the university where I was, not a lot did. So, I have the advantage of having connected with English speaking people before coming here. So when I came here, that adaptation wasn’t difficult. But yes, I’d like to have more Spanish speaking friends, of course. I want to go to Salsa classes to try to find some. I hope to find a group there.

Javier: I know a coworker, a professor of the university, he’s French, he can help get you in those classes. Haha

Mercedes:  I know that in Darden there is a bigger Hispanic population, a little more representation.

Javier:  Yes, I’m a part of, the, Slack group for Hispanic professors. We’ve already had a meeting. We are trying to create events where we can bring more awareness to the Hispanic population here. Anyway, there are lots of opportunities for people like you, Mercedes and Marco, to get closer with the Hispanic population in Charlottesville and in the United States in general. Well on another note, on diversity, if there’s one thing our School tries to highlight is our promotion of diversity. For example, on a personal level, I am a part of a group of professors who are from different nationalities: Turkish, Chinese, Indian, Brazilian. I am letting myself… Iranian, we have a professor from Iran. Asides from that, we have a fairly balanced proportion of men and  women faculty as well as professors who identify as non-binary. And at the Master’s and PhD student level, we have a similar situation. Although, my experience is a little more limited. Aside from that, you guys, from what you’ve lived and are currently living, is there any way the School can help bring in, create, a better community, a more diverse one, more than it already is?  

Mercedes:  Uhm… in my experience it’s been really good. You know? The amount of outreach to international students can be improved, but my class is around 8%. Which is good. It is good. I think it’d be nice to have more Spanish speaking people, but that’s just a personal preference haha. But yes, I think you can see that in the school there is a big effort to highlight everyone’s voice and to share diverse perspectives, which is seen. You can find people of diverse nationalities, and it's very balanced in how many men and women. So yep. I think it's going very well.  

Javier:  You Marco? What do you..

Marco:  I would say, the diversity within the PhD program is something that is being worked on. It needs to be worked on. I would also say it's fairly complicated, it’s not independent of the people who would be interested in the program.  

Javier:  Yes, you can’t control that.  

Marco:  You can’t control that. The program doesn’t reach too deeply into the Latinx people. Maybe something that can be done is promotion or do more campaigns similar to this one in Spanish so it can reach that group.

Javier:  Yes, let’s hope this isn’t the first and only time we do this. Of course If our listeners like our voices and what we do . Especially the moderator’s voice.

[Group Laughter]

Marco:  Yes, it’s something still in progress.

Javier:  Yes and it’s something that I, as a part of the professors group, is trying to find ways to improve, at all levels from admissions to promotion. To increase diversity, it’s something we always have on our minds. For example, one of my coworkers, Professor Jack Van Horn, and 2 other colleagues from the School of data science, have established a relationship with the University of Lucca in Italy with the goal to start bringing students to our data science program here. With this relationship and a bit of luck, we can increase the diversity here, in this case increase the amount of international students in our program. At the university level, there’s a program with the Universidad of Valencia that is something I know of personally. We have an exchange program. We have lots of students come here from the Universidad of Valencia in Spain. Also, the other day, I was talking with a pair of students from Madrid, also in the program, but at the undergraduate level,  Now we are also exploring establishing a relationship with a different university in Spain to do something similar like with Lucca, to try to bring more of those students, including up to PhD students. PhD students who may want to do research for a shorter period of time, 3-6 months, or for our students to go to their universities. It’s something that the School of Data Science always has in mind. Well, I think we have already covered all the things in our script. We obviously had a script here in front of us. To wrap up… for our listeners who we hope are seriously thinking about applying to our Master’s or PhD program, even the undergraduate data science program, as it’s one of the rarest programs in the U.S. We hope that you see us positively and are seriously thinking about us as an option. For our guests, what advice would you give to prospective students, applicants, who want to study or work in the U.S.? What advice would you give?

Marco:  Umm.. oof. I think I could give more advice on research. I know that in economics, it’s more common to have programs that help prepare you for the research path and help you with PhD program applications, also helping you improve your chances of getting in. I know they are becoming even more popular in computer science. I recommend researching them online, social media, and public forums, I think those can help a lot, especially for those in developing countries, to get a chance to get into a PhD program, to go abroad or the U.S. in particular.  

Javier:  Mercedes, do you have an idea?

Mercedes:  Hmm.. I would say to explore, see what options you have. I think there are lots of programs in the U.S. which deserve a chance. For example American universities give you various opportunities and various resources you can take advantage of to grow your professional career and honestly to grow as a person. There are lots of programs, lots of scholarships. I know it can be intimidating, the possibility of going to another country, the economic investment that you have to do sometimes. But as I said, there are lots of scholarships and lots of resources to help you do it. So explore it and figure out what suits your needs best. And, I think that the majority of the time it will be a good decision to follow your passion, it’s always a good decision.  

Javier:  My advice, I can say, most likely in the countries that you guys live in, there are programs that are partnered with American universities. So, explore those options. It would be strange if your current university did not have such programs. There are also the Fulbright program scholarships, which allow you to be in the U.S. for a specific period of time. They are incredibly prestigious and are also extremely generous. They are a great opportunity for you to come live the American experience. On the employment level, I would say don’t be afraid to contact companies. I know they have lots of internships in which if they see your passion and your skills, they can give you all the resources to help you develop a positive and rewarding experience in a training setting. My advice, don’t be afraid, get in touch. If you want to stereotype the U.S., do it for how open it is to having conversations. Don’t be afraid to contact professor x or professor y, or company x or company y. They will welcome you with open arms.