The iSchool is proud to have served as cohost for 28 data science scholars from Kazakhstan in the 2024-2025 academic year. The scholars were part of the Bolashak International Scholarship Program, an initiative sponsored by the Kazakhstani government to facilitate academic, scientific, and cultural exchange. At the University of Illinois, one of the host institutions, the program is coordinated by Global Education and Training (GET) and the Intensive English Institute in Illinois International. In addition to data science, the 88 scholars participating in the program at the U. of I. represented the fields of environmental ecology, law, and pedagogy.
The primary objectives of the program include enhancing academic and research skills, facilitating collaborative research projects, promoting cultural exchange, and strengthening the scholars' teaching skills. The iSchool Research Services team worked with GET and program instructors to design activities related to various aspects of data science that would support the scholars' interests and career goals. These activities included course auditing, mentoring, workshops, lectures, and panels, including:
Workshops
- Data Leadership Unleashed: Strategies for Leading Data Science Professionals (Instructor: David Charles)
- Python (Instructors: Elizabeth Wickes, John Bambenek, John Weible, Renee Hendricks)
- Database Design and Modeling (Instructor: Yang Zhang)
- Peer Review in Scholarly Journals (Instructor: Janaynne Carvalho do Amaral)
Lectures
- Data Curation Lecture and Lab (Instructor: Bertram Ludäscher)
- Data Ethics (Instructor: Peter Darch)
- Humanizing Data Science with Storytelling (Instructor: Kate McDowell)
Panel
- Having a Successful Career in Data Science (Moderator: J. Stephen Downie; Panelists: Yun Huang, Yaoyao Liu, and MSIM alum Kameron Wells)
iSchool mentors included Ian Brooks, David Charles, Ismini Lourentzou, Bertram Ludäscher, Jiaqi Ma, Tim McPhillips, Madelyn Sanfilippo, Meicen Sun, Ted Underwood, Dong Wang, Haohan Wang, and Elizabeth Wickes.
"The iSchool became involved in this program to promote knowledge exchange in data science and the growth and development of the Data Science Bolashak Program in the coming years, as well as to enhance our data science programs," said Postdoctoral Research Associate Janaynne Carvalho do Amaral, who helped design and coordinate activities with iSchool Research Services.
"The data science program the iSchool team developed with GET for our Kazakh colleagues was based upon our School's unique leadership perspective working at the intersection of people, technology, and information,” added Professor and Associate Dean for Research J. Stephen Downie.
The program concluded on May 9 with a Research Capstone Poster Session highlighting the original research of this year's Bolashak Scholars.