Dear Data Wonks,
We are pleased to bring you our finalized schedule of meetups for the 2022-2023 academic year. All of our meetups will be hosted in a Teams channel calendar event, and the link can be found at the bottom of that message. Feel free to share the link with other new and aspiring Data Wonks on campus. Even better, invite them to join us here in Teams. Data Wonks meetups will all fall on the last Tuesday of each month (with one exception in May) at 3pm. Meetups will usually last one hour.
New this year, we are hoping to gather available and interested Data Wonks for lunch on the same day at The Sett (holding the right to move to the Terrace on warmer days). So, look out for a separate, sibling calendar event to compliment this one. Those gatherings will be in person and begin at 12 noon, preceding our 3pm time together each month. It is hard to know what to expect for this social activity – but there may be opportunities to prime our topics with some over-lunch discussion. Stay tuned to see how that develops.
October 25th, 3pm
Topic: Campus Low / No Code Project
Format: Project Background / Updates / Demos / Engaged Sharing & Interactions
Description: Bring your thoughts, ideas, and experiences with low / no code solutions – and get some background and/or an update on the campus low/no code project, which is part of the Administrative Transformation Program (ATP). This session will include some interactive breakouts where more details on specific solutions (e.g. Power Apps, Quick Base, Kuali) and use cases can be explored.
Presenters/Facilitator: Joe Kelly, Senior IT Project Manager (DoIT); J.J. Du Chateau, Enterprise Architect (DoIT); Mark Field, Workflow & App Dev Assoc. Dir (DoIT); and other guests
November 29th, 3pm
Topic: Data Governance
Format: Panel Discussion
Description: Data governance – this is happening at all levels of the organization. What does it mean? Come to learn some terms, examples, and people who are already involved. Then try and help self-identify your role within data governance with the goal of broadening/deepening the UW Madison data governance community.
Presenters/Facilitator: Lisa Johnston, Director of Data Governance (Data Management & Analytics Services); Christian Schmieder, Assnt Dir for Data Governance (Extension)
December
No Meetup This Month – Have an Excellent Winter Recess ⛄
January 31th, 3pm
Topic: SQL, Data Queries, SAS Follow Up & The Life Changing Magic of Factored Subqueries
Format: Presentation & Discussion
Description: Data querying 101 and 201. More examples of how SQL can be leveraged to query campus data. Upskill with some more advanced learning around factored subqueries. Then stick around to discuss where you are at with querying tools; Have you adopted SAS? Are you working in another platform? What are your favorite tools and queries?
Presenters/Facilitator: Adam Huffman, Digital Analytic Lead (WSB); Sara Hagen, Academic Planner & Data Analyst (Engineering)
CANCELED: February 28th, 3pm (Lunch also canceled)
Topic: Media / Book Club (Redux)
Format: Book Club
Description: Last May we got to dive into the topic of data feminism. Join us this time to dive into another hot topic relating to data. We will provide several means of engaging in the topic such as podcasts, videos, books, and/or articles. More details will be forthcoming, but this promises to be a fun deep dive regardless.
Presenters/Facilitator: Sarah Sobek Ozburn, Data Analyst and Project Manager (DCS); and other guests from our steering team
March 28th, 3pm
Topic: The Journey of Working with Data
Format: Storytelling / Sharing
Description: From raw data tables, to understanding vendor products, to managing/navigating issues, to Badger Analytics, to Tableau visualizations and everything in between. Come to hear a story about how degree audit data has developed and been leveraged on campus using enterprise solutions. Share your thoughts and stories about how your journey with data has evolved over the years.
Presenters/Facilitator: Eric MacKay, Academic Project Manager for the DoIT Academic Technology, Project Management Group
April 25th, 3pm
Topic: Interactive Data Visualization in Python
Format: Live Coding
Description: Get your 🤓 on during this session! Preview a lesson in interactive data visualization with live coding. Some areas that might be explored include Docker, GitHub or Jekyll pages w/ GitHub. If any of those words make sense to you – you are going to love this session.
Presenters/Facilitator: Sarah Stevens, Data Science Facilitator (Data Science Hub)
May 23rd, 3pm
Topic: So Social, So Long
Format: In-Person Meetup
Description: Jonathan Henkel, currently the Director of Academic Planning and Assessment at SoHE, has been co-leading/facilitating/coordinating the Data Wonks Community of Practice for the last six years. This will be the last year where he will be involved in this capacity. While he will remain very involved in the community, he will be passing the leadership baton. Join us for a celebratory in-person gathering at the Terrace (weather pending).
Presenters/Facilitator: Data Wonks CoP; and other guests from the steering committee
A very warm thank you to all of our guest presenters/facilitators. Also, many thanks to our steering team Amanda Thornton, Sara Hagen, Sarah Sobek Ozburn, and introducing/welcoming Adam Huffman, for helping to coordinate. Most of all, a nod to the Data Wonks at UW-Madison for staying involved in this community. We are personally grateful, and happy to share the gratitude from stakeholders across campus and beyond. If you have any questions, join us on Teams or email us. Thank you!
Here’s to a very fantastic 2022-2023 🎉!