The two-week Data Science Summer School, organized by the data science working group of German-Japanese University network HeKKSaGOn and the Graduate Program in Data Science, took place from September 9-20, 2024, at Tohoku University. The event brought together approximately 26 participants from various institutions and backgrounds, including 11 from the University of Göttingen, 4 from Heidelberg University, 4 from Tohoku University, and 7 from other Japanese national universities, totaling of 8 different nationalities.
The intensive program covered a wide range of data science topics, including data preprocessing, classification algorithms, ensemble learning, neural networks, text mining, and time series forecasting. Participants engaged in daily lectures, hands-on coding exercises, and a series of Kaggle competitions that ran throughout the school. The schedule was rigorous, with sessions typically running from 8:45 AM to 5:00 PM, including coffee breaks and lunch periods.
Notable speakers included Professors Jun Suzuki, Takayuki Okatani, Kengo Kinoshita, Masayuki Ohzeki, and Associate Professor Naoya Chiba. The main instructor for the summer school was Assistant Professor Samy Baladram.
In addition to the academic program, participants had the opportunity to join an excursion to Iwate Prefecture during one of the free Saturdays, providing a cultural component to the experience. Despite the demanding schedule, which often extended into evening hours as participants worked on Kaggle competition entries, attendees found the summer school both challenging and highly rewarding, gaining valuable insights into data science practices and forming international connections.
