{"id":217812,"date":"2025-06-24T12:26:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T22:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=217812"},"modified":"2025-06-24T14:12:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T00:12:29","slug":"womens-impact-in-data-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/06\/24\/womens-impact-in-data-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s impact in data science highlighted by M\u0101noa researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"deng
Youping Deng and Lauren Higa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By honoring the legacy of women in data science, University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa researchers are pushing for a more inclusive and innovative future in the rapidly growing field. <\/p>\n

Published in the June 2025 issue of Patterns<\/a><\/em>, the piece “Highlighting the Achievements and Impact of Women in Data Science” was written by Lauren Higa, a PhD<\/abbr> student in the Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering Program in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/a>, and her advisor, Youping Deng, professor and director of the Bioinformatics Core at the John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (JABSOM<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

The article honors pioneers including Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer; Florence Nightingale, who used data to improve public health; and NASA<\/abbr> mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, whose computational work was crucial to space exploration. These trailblazers laid the foundation for modern data science. It also highlights current leaders such as Fei-Fei Li, whose ImageNet project revolutionized artificial intelligence and computer vision, showing the lasting impact of women in the field.<\/p>\n

A call for equity and inclusion<\/h2>\n

Despite these remarkable contributions, women remain underrepresented in science fields, making up only 23% of the global data science workforce, according to a 2024 Anaconda report. Higa and Deng argue that this lack of representation hinders progress, limits innovation and introduces bias in data-driven technologies.<\/p>\n

To address the gender gap, Higa and Deng propose a range of actionable solutions, including strengthening mentorship and sponsorship opportunities, ensuring equitable access to authorship and publishing, and creating institutional policies that promote work-life balance and long-term career support.<\/p>\n

Through their research and leadership at JABSOM<\/abbr>\u2019s Bioinformatics Core, the 糖心视频<\/abbr> M\u0101noa team hopes to inspire positive change in the data science landscape, one that is inclusive, equitable and reflective of the communities it aims to serve.<\/p>\n

Read more at JABSOM<\/abbr><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

糖心视频<\/abbr> M\u0101noa researchers highlight women\u2019s often-overlooked contributions to data science and propose solutions to close the gender gap in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[212,31,1010,158,9],"class_list":["post-217812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-molecular-biosciences-and-bioengineering","tag-publication","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t