Symposium

Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data and apply knowledge and actionable insights from data across a broad range of application domains. The field includes the area of artificial intelligence (AI), methods that enable machines to understand, learn, and make decisions and predictions based on hidden patterns in data. The study of data science integrates knowledge primarily from statistics and computer science, and application domains like environmental science. There are many challenges still facing the field as it finds its footing. One such challenge is the pressing need to de-silo science and government data gathering and modeling to ensure domain-specific expertise is available for optimizing and developing relevant and powerful methods. From the governmental point of view, this connects to the need to accelerate the delivery of evidence-based approaches and tools for fulfilment of mandates and creation of policy.

The International Environmetrics Society (TIES) has held annual conferences since 1990 on topics connected to environmetrics: quantitative methods, monitoring, decision analysis, spatio-temporal models, and so on. One common element in these conferences is the intensive use of data sourced from national science agencies, and members of such agencies (e.g., NOAA, United States; ECCC, Canada; Met Office, United Kingdom) have long been attendees. A one-day free online symposium is being offered as part of the 2021 annual meeting (also online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic) exploring the topic of Data Science and Environmental Data, especially as applied to Policy at a governmental level. The link to the Zoom meeting information for this symposium (one link for the entire session, attendees can join at any time) is: https://trentu.zoom.us/j/99857333793?pwd=UVNRUmhoV0lqd21OTDAwQjU2dnZBQT09. The password for the meeting is TIES if you are prompted. Please note that we will not be running a sign-up or attendance - if you are interested, please simply attend! We hope you can join us for this fascinating topic.

Tentative Schedule ~ 4 hours total duration: 11 am - 3:00 pm EDT (8 am - 12:00 am PDT))

Session 1

11:00 - 11:10 EDT (8-8:10 PDT) Symposium Welcome - Burr and Newlands (10 min)

11:10 - 11:45 Elizabeth Mannshardt, EPA - Environmental Policies and Data Science at the US EPA + Q&A

11:45 - 12:20 Adam Smith, NOAA - The US Billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disasters Program + Q&A

12:20 - 12:25 Health Break (5 min)

12:25 - 12:40 Rachel Mintz, ECCC - Environmental Decision Making and Data Science + Q&A

12:40 - 13:00 Open Discussion (15 min) or Break

Session 2

13:00 - 13:05 EDT (10-10:05 PDT) Connection from Session 1 - Burr and Newlands

13:05 - 13:25 David Borges, NASA - Disaster Risk Analysis + Q&A

13:25 - 13:45 Mike Moran, ECCC - COVID-19, Lockdowns, and Air Quality + Q&A

13:45 - 13:50 Health Break (5 min)

13:50 - 14:10 Claire Austin, ECCC - FAIRER Data with maDMPs + Q&A

14:10 - 14:30 Elena Naumova, Tufts University - Public Data for Policy + Q&A

14:30 - 14:40 Health Break (10 min)

Concluding Session and Discussion

14:40 - 15:00 EDT (11:40-12 PDT) Concluding remarks, Q&A - Burr and Newlands