Student Community

Student Teams

MIDAS offers student organization advising and can serve as the administrative sponsor for any data science-related student organizations wishing to exist as a Sponsored Student Organization through the University’s Center for Campus Involvement.  

Examples of MIDAS administrative support:

  • MIDAS faculty advising on research and data science projects
  • Help with seeking data sets and computing resources for projects
  • Connection to community organizations and industry affiliates for data projects

To inquire about becoming a MIDAS-sponsored student organization, e-mail midas-contact@umich.edu.
Below is a list of the teams that MIDAS supports:

EcoData

Collaborating on data-driven projects, Michigan EcoData is a new vibrant organization at the University of Michigan that works on creating data driven and multidisciplinary solutions to ecological issues.  Our philosophy as an organization is oriented towards identifying gaps in knowledge in order to enact change that benefits the ecological well-being of communities and ecosystems. EcoData members work in small groups and work as a team to accomplish project goals. We foster an incredibly open environment, where members from a variety of disciplines can come together to work on project teams or start their own.

Michigan Data Science Team

MDST is dedicated to educating students about the practical applications of data science. This means we work on projects, hold workshops, and also have a couple of social events throughout the semester. 

Tech 4 Social Good

Tech for Social Good is a community of students from all disciplines interested in exploring the intersection of technology and society. This community organizes campus-wide dialogues on social justice related topics, and also facilitate community-based project teams in order to support different causes while defining the role of technology for a more just society.

Statistics in the Community 

STATCOM (Statistics in the Community) at the University of Michigan is a community outreach program provided by graduate students in the Departments of Biostatistics, Statistics, and the Program for Survey Methodology at University of Michigan. The program offers the expertise of statistics graduate students, free of charge, to non-profit governmental and community organizations in the areas of data organization, analysis, and interpretation.  MIDAS partners with STATCOM annually by hosting the Data for Public Good Symposium, a full day event that features presentations and workshops from UM students, faculty, and community and industry partners on data science projects designed to contribute to the betterment of society.

Michigan Student Artificial Intelligence Lab

The Michigan Student Artificial Intelligence Lab (MSAIL) is a student organization for discussion of artificial intelligence and machine learning.  We are a community in which motivated students read and discuss modern machine learning literature together in weekly discussion groups. We welcome students of all backgrounds and abilities.

Project X

ProjectX is a two month long machine learning research competition for undergraduate students from the top universities in North America, hosted by the University of Toronto Artificial Intelligence Group.  This initiative is designed to focus on tackling important problems like Climate Change.  MIDAS coordinates UM’s involvement in this competition, forming the student team and advising members throughout the competition.  Students conduct research on a given topic and submit a research paper at the culmination of the competition.  Finalists earn a cash prize and present their research at the University of Toronto, competing for the grand prize.

Student Leadership Board

The MIDAS Student Leadership Board has represented multiple schools, colleges, programs, majors, and degree levels (undergraduate and graduate). They have designed data science education initiatives and research programming.  The leadership board has also organized events throughout the year that promote diversity and inclusion.

Starting in the 2023 school year, the Student Leadership Board will be replaced by the Student Organizations Council.

2022-23 Leadership Board Members

  • Lucy Duan, Undergraduate, Computer Science and Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience
  • Cristina Garbacea, Doctoral, Computer Science and Engineering
  • Jeremy Huang, Masters, Information Science
  • John Kaspers, Masters, Information, Applied Data Science
  • Ella Li, Masters, Data Science
  • Andria Brianna Lesane, Masters, Information, Applied Data Science
  • Jiangyue Mao, Masters, Data Science
  • Rui Nie, Undergraduate, Statistics and Mathematics
  • Sydney Vogel, Undergraduate, Data Science
  • Daniel Wang, Undergraduate, Computer Science and Data Science

Alumni

2021-2022

  • Veronica Alfaro – Undergraduate, LSA, Statistics and Data Science
  • Cara Canady – Masters, Data Analytics & Data Science
  • Cristina Garbacea – Doctoral, Computer Science
  • Katherine Nicholson – Undergraduate, Engineering, Data Science Engineering
  • Michael Hymowitz – Undergraduate, Statistics
  • Ramani Tyagi – Undergraduate, Engineering, Computer Science
  • Sanidhi Metha – Undergraduate, LSA, Data Science
  • Vikram Mohan – Undergraduate, LSA, Statistics
  • Stephen Salerno – Doctoral, Public Health, Biostatistics
  • Mukai Wang – Doctoral, Biostatistics

2020-2021

  • Eric Chen – Undergraduate, Engineering, Data Science Engineering
  • Mackenzie Francisco – Masters, Information, Applied Data Science
  • Gauri Kambhatla – Masters, Engineering, Computer Science Engineering
  • Ani Madurkar- Masters, Information, Applied Data Science
  • Makarand Parigi – Masters, Engineering, Computer Science Engineering

The student leadership board is sponsored by: