UTSA welcomes White House Chief Data Scientist Dominique Duval-Diop

OCTOBER 23, 2023 — An upcoming conference being hosted by UTSA is highlighting an impressive list of keynote speakers. Among them is Dominique Duval-Diop, the chief data scientist of the United States in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Duval-Diop will kick off the first full day of the Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA) Annual Meeting, which will be held at San Pedro I from October 24-27. Following her keynote address at 9 a.m., she will host a Q&A with participants, followed by a special Q&A session with students, including those from area high schools.

In a nod to San Antonio’s reputation for biomedicine and public art, the ADSA’s conference theme for 2023 is “Health, Well-Being, and the Arts.”

“We try to bridge all of those disciplines, and I think that makes our vision for what data science is more inclusive.”

The opening of UTSA’s San Pedro I in January 2023 marked a new era of high-tech education, research and innovation in Texas. Home to the National Security Collaboration Center and the UTSA School of Data Science, it was the first project in UTSA’s phased, 10-year approach to accelerating the development of its Downtown Campus as a destination for producing highly skilled professionals in data science, data analytics and national security.

The facility has also bolstered UTSA’s standing as a Hispanic Serving, Tier One research university committed to serving San Antonio’s growing population and supporting economic development in San Antonio.

UTSA has positioned San Pedro I as a downtown hub for collaboration among government, academia and private firms in the high-tech sector.

In much the same way, ADSA hopes its conference at San Pedro I—the first in-person event since ADSA’s founding in 2019—will usher in a new era through networking and partnerships among its member firms.

“We launched just prior to a pandemic and our mission was community-building and convening folks at events, and that became really challenging,” said ADSA Founder and Executive Director Micaela Parker.

“That is what we’re hoping to rekindle with this meeting post-pandemic—to bring back those spontaneous hallway conversations and happenstance meetings that really spark new collaborations; those are very hard to replicate in a virtual environment,” Parker added. “Having this opportunity to run this in-person and provide opportunities for networking and the possibility of kindling new collaboration—that’s really what the meeting is all about.”

ADSA is an organization of data science practitioners, educators, and leaders dedicated to integrating data science and AI initiatives in higher education, and to advocating for others in the industry.

“We try to bridge all of those disciplines, and I think that makes our vision for what data science is more inclusive,” said Parker “because we truly believe that data science should be built by and for all disciplines.”

In addition to Duval-Diop, keynote speakers include Internationally Renowned Sculptor and Visual Artist Sebastian and Besa Bauta, AI expert and chief information officer of the Jewish Board.

Several UTSA faculty members will also be among the presenters at the conference, including: Rebecca Schroeder, interim associate dean and professor of instruction for the University College; Juan B. Gutiérrez, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics; Sylvia Fernandez, assistant professor in the Department of Public and Digital Humanities; Yuexia Zhang, Min Wang and Keying Ye, faculty members in the Carlos Alvarez College of Business; Ginny Garcia-Alexander, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology; Seok Kang, professor and director of digital initiatives in the Department of Communication; and Abraham Gibson, assistant professor in the Department of History.