Hilary Mason, listed in Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business 2013, will headline a Canadian Open Data Experience (CODE) event.
Hilary Mason, listed in Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business 2013, will headline a Canadian Open Data Experience (CODE) event at the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus this week.
Mason is a data scientist in residence at leading venture capital firm Accel Partners, and will speak at CODE's Inspiration Day program in Stratford on February 28. She will share the impact of Big Data, its possibilities, and the need for creative interpretation. Mason is a member of NYC Resistor and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Technology and Innovation Advisory Council.
Inspiration Day is part of a larger CODE event, which the Stratford Campus is hosting through March 2. The focus of Stratford's CODE event is on the use of Big Data and the power of combining it with data visualization to communicate and inspire an audience. The event includes a Canadian national open data hackathon, which takes place from February 28 through March 2.
Nadia Amoroso, chief creative officer and co-founder of DataAppeal, as well as an author and lecturer at the University of Toronto, will share data visualization best practices for creative mapping and design. Haim Sechter, co-founder and CEO of DataAppeal, will discuss how to enhance the visual display of information to make it more understandable and effective in day-to-day decision-making.
“We are so fortunate to have some of the world’s pre-eminent experts in two fascinating and emerging fields coming to our campus," said Ginny Dybenko, executive director of the Stratford Campus. “Big Data and data visualization will continue to have a tremendous impact on daily life—another example of how technical understanding and creative thinking are interwoven in digital media.”
The Honourable Tony Clement, president of the Treasury Board and CODE facilitator, will introduce the CODE hackathon via a live feed from another CODE hub in Toronto. Innovators will compete to build the best open data apps, with a chance to win cash prizes totalling more than $35,000 and the opportunity to meet and pitch ideas to tech-focused venture capitalists to fund the development of their app.
“Data is Canada’s new natural resource,” said Minister Clement. “The sky’s the limit in terms of what we can do with this material.”
Big Data refers to the ability to measure, analyze, manage and utilize massive data sets, potentially to provide a response in real time, while data visualization is the creation and study of the visual representation of data in order to communicate its meaning to a wide audience.
To book a ticket for CODE at the Stratford Campus, please visit the registration website.
Please visit the conference website for more information.
There will be a live feed of the CODE Inspiration Day speakers.
In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada's technology hub, has become one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities with 35,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Waterloo, as home to the world's largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. For more information about Waterloo, please visit www.uwaterloo.ca
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Nick Manning
University of Waterloo
519-888-4451
226-929-7627
nmanning@uwaterloo.ca
www.uwaterloo.ca/news
@uWaterlooNews
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