CONNECT is an annual Data Science conference that addresses students, young professionals, researchers, practitioners and others interested in the field of Data Science and Survey Research.
The conference is dedicated to facilitating information exchange in the area of Survey and Data Science across various sectors (academia, industry, government, and non-profits). Topics presented will cover a wide range of domains.
This year, you will not only learn about career opportunities in the field of survey and data science, but you will also have the opportunity to hear about minorities in social networks and the role of data science for building smart cities. Further details are available in the program below.
Markus Strohmaier leads the Chair for Data-Science in the Economic and Social Sciences at University of Mannheim (Germany). He is also the Scientific Coordinator for Digital Behavioral Data at GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and an External Faculty Member at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna. Previously, he was a Post-Doc at the University of Toronto (Canada), an Assistant Professor at Graz University of Technology (Austria), a visiting scientist at (XEROX) Parc (USA), a Visiting Assistant Professor at Stanford University (USA), and the founder and scientific director of the department for Computational Social Science at GESIS (Germany). He was also a Professor for Web-Science at University of Koblenz-Landau and the Chair for Computational Social Science and Humanities at RWTH Aachen University. He is interested in applying and developing computational techniques to research challenges on the intersection between computer science and the economic and social sciences.
Konstantin Gavras is Senior Data Scientist at Nesto Software GmbH. In his work, he is responsible for forecast optimization and develops analytics and BI Dashboards. Previously, he was employed at the Chair of Political Psychology at the University of Mannheim and pursued his PhD in Political Science in 2022.
Marko Jeftic studied business informatics at the University of Mannheim and founded ciconia Software GmbH together with his fellow students in 2017. As Managing Director, he is responsible for the organization and product development of the online marketplace for regional food named Marktfee.app, which has made over 450 food suppliers digital, orderable and deliverable.
Christoph Kern is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Professorship for Statistics and Methodology at the University of Mannheim and Research Assistant Professor at the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM) at the University of Maryland. He also is a Project Director at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). He received his PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) in social science from the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) in 2016. Before joining the University of Mannheim, he was a research associate at the Professorship for Empirical Social Science Research and Statistics at UDE. His research focuses on the use of machine learning methods in social science and algorithmic fairness.
Olga Kononykhina is a sociologist & data scientist. Her work centers on projects around culture, ESG, SDG. She did projects for UNESCO, CoE, Goethe Institute, Nigerian stock exchange. She shares her time between writing a PhD (inventing tinder for jobs) at LMU, ZiviZ gGmbH and academic consulting.
Heinrich Lorei is a geoinformatician and works on topics such as Smart Region as well as open source applications and gamification approaches. At the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, he is team leader for digital infrastructures and data, focusing on the development of inter-communal data infrastructures and strategies. He works in Mannheim and lives in Heidelberg.
Professor Heidi Wayment earned her PhD in social psychology at UCLA and has been on the faculty at Northern Arizona University since 1996. A successful teacher, scholar, mentor, and administrator, Heidi completed the Mannheim Master of Applied Data Science & Measurement (M.Sc.) to advance her own research goals as well as update existing curriculum and research opportunities for students.
More speakers to be announced.
In 2022, CONNECT is jointly organized by the International Program in Survey & Data Science, the Mannheim Center for Data Science (University of Mannheim) and Mannheim Business School.
