Local HS Students, University Personnel Team Up at Data Science Day
The University of Scranton’s second annual Data Science Day was held earlier this month at the DeNaples Center. Participants included 35 high school students from five local schools who received hands-on instruction and competed in individual and team competitions.The possibilities within data science are endless and evolving, constantly being pushed by new technological advancements. Professionals earn an average of $112,000-plus per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which projects a 34% increase in jobs from 2024 to 2034.
However, as with many mathematics- or science-related fields, its complexities could overwhelm a beginning student.
“Sometimes, data sets could be very ugly, very hard to manage,” said Joseph Klobusicky, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics at The University of Scranton.
That’s where an event like Data Science Day proves useful.
This year’s Data Science Day was held Thursday, Nov. 13, at the DeNaples Center. Thirty-five students from five high schools — Abington Heights, Carbondale Area, Holy Cross, Mid Valley, Scranton Prep — participated in the second annual event, which provided them with hands-on instruction and programming practice on powerful tools used for data-driven analysis in various industries.
“I’m elated,” Dr. Klobusicky, the organizer of the event, said of its turnout. “As we all know, AI is the big thing that’s coming. Having a command of topics like data science really helps you understand a lot of the topics of computer science. It’s good to give them a head start on these types of the topics.”
Among the student volunteers from the University was John DiMattio ’29, a computer science major from Jefferson Township. Last year, DiMattio was a competitor at the event in his senior year at Scranton Prep.
“I did it last year because I like to code, so I wanted to use another coding language and see what data science is like,” DiMattio said. “It gave me an insight to what this is, especially since I have to take data structure next year. So, it kind of gives a little sneak peek into what I’m to expect as a computer science major.”
Data Science Day included data processing tutorials, individual and team competitions and a keynote address by Stephen Sorokanich, a Quantum Fellow with the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The competition offered a structured, beginner-friendly environment to learn high-demand skills that could be used to analyze and visualize complex data, create predictive models, identify unusual patterns and automate tasks, among other things.
Volunteering alongside DiMattio was Jackson Conti ’27, a computer science major from Pottstown.
“After I’d taken some data science classes with Dr. Klobusicky, I realized that this was something that I was extremely interested in. I wanted to help out where I could,” Conti said. “For me, (I’m interested in) the wide range of applications where you could apply data science. There’s no shortage of where you could apply it: sociology, philosophy, psychology, economics. There’s really nowhere you can’t apply it.”
