Data Science Club members prep for success

Described as Carnegie Mellon University Africa’s premier artificial intelligence student club, the Data Science Club brings together students interested in data science, focusing on hands-on learning, innovation, and creating data-driven solutions that can make a tangible impact.

For members of the Data Science Club, preparing for a successful career means using skills to dominate the leaderboard of a hackathon, networking with global experts, and having access to supplemental online education.

As successful programming has grown, so has its membership, noted president Victor Olufemi (MS EAI ’27), adding that the club has 60 active members. With growing membership, the club offers more opportunities for hands-on learning as well as special opportunities, such as competing in and managing a regional hackathon.

The club hosted participants from across Rwanda for the AI for East African Community Regional Hackathon (AI4EAC). The competition, a 48-hour hacking session, was organized by Zindi and the EAC AI Alliance. The event, held March 28-29, included 3,500 participants from more than 100 universities in Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, and five other East African Community countries.

CMU-Africa’s team topped the leaderboard in several categories, securing more than $12,000 in cash prizes. Three CMU-Africa students won first place in three categories. In addition, multi-member teams placed second and third in the advanced category. Those students and others in the top 10 rankings were also awarded internships. “It was a great success for both the club and members,” Olufemi said. “The team worked all night and all day during the event. Our members demonstrated exceptional technical endurance and skill.”

Members get the opportunity for mentoring and career planning through hosting global visionaries and alumni speakers. The club recently hosted speakers including Matteo Rizzi, global fintech leader and senior partner Africa & Middle East, Global Finance & Technology Network, and Kwadwo Agyapon-Ntra (MS ECE ’22), senior data scientist for Innovations for Poverty Action.

A new learning opportunity for members stems from a partnership between the Data Science Club and DataCamp, an online education platform. Through the partnership, DataCamp provides club members with free platform licenses. Members can access 100 classes on topics such as coding, data visualization, and predictive modeling. Olufemi remains club president this academic year and plans to complete his degree, run his nonprofit language lab in Nigeria, and manage a startup in Rwanda focused on language. His future plans are to apply to Ph.D. programs and study language.

As membership and programming continue to grow this year, Data Science Club members look forward to partnering with the Research Club and possibly others to host joint programs. Assisting the club is faculty adviser, CMU-Africa research professor, Prasenjit Mitra.

“CMU-Africa is very supportive of the Data Science Club,” Olufemi said. “We are grateful for the overall support and also, specifically of the university’s support of the hackathon. The Student Services team provided our team with meals and logistics, allowing our students to remain fully focused on-site throughout the entire 48-hour sprint.”