ADSA Annual Meeting - 2024

Higher education institutions need to produce individuals with data science acumen to meet the demands of a 21st century data science workforce. While most organizations and agencies have access to data, many cannot capitalize and benefit from it, as they lack access to staff with interdisciplinary skillsets. Higher education institutions tend to operate in disciplinary silos and often prepare a workforce that is accustomed to sourcing solutions for specific disciplinary problems as opposed to interdisciplinary problems relevant to current technological and societal contexts. Furthermore, the best talents from data science programs often choose to work for large technology-oriented companies. Thus, it is very difficult for small, mid-sized companies and public sector organizations to gain access to graduates with data science skills. Several universities across the U.S. created Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) programs to address the data science talent needs of public sector organizations. However, the impacts of DSSG programs on student experiences and workforce demands are understudied. Florida DSSG program has been conducting studies on student experiences and how those experiences lead to skillsets that match workforce demands. During the session, we will present our study findings and conduct live reflection activities using the Riff AI tool to gather ADSA participants’ perspectives on the data science workforce, and STEM student educational and co-curricular programs.