WiDS Pittsburgh @CMU was held for the first time last year and had nearly 150 local participants including students, faculty, companies, non-profits, and campus organizations. WiDS is an international conference primarily located in Stanford, CA with 100+ satellite conferences across every continent except Antarctica. In 2018, over 100,000 people attended the conference in person and via the livestream and Facebook Live.  The purpose of WiDS is “to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and support women in the field”; the conference features exclusively female speakers from academia and industry.

This year WiDS Pittsburgh @CMU will be a three-day event, starting with a CMU New York panel on Data Science in the Finance Industry – Trends and Opportunities, continuing with a social kickoff, and finishing with a day of engaging, broadly accessible talks on current work in data science. Attendees can network, meet and learn from local experts in the field, and submit resumes for potential opportunities with industry sponsors.