Speaking last year with the late UConn professor Joseph McKenna, he recalled a colloquium on mathematical studies of bridges he\u2019d once given at Bryn Mawr College. He happened to run into Talitha Washington, one of his graduate students, who was there visiting friends. They said hello and McKenna went off to his colloquium.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually these talks are fairly dull, with about five or six faculty members who attend out of a sense of obligation more than anything else,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when I came to give my talk, somehow Talitha, in wandering around the department, had rounded up 10 to 20 undergraduates to come to my talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
It must have taken a certain amount of courage to go into a completely strange place and gather up all those people, said McKenna. \u201cThat\u2019s just the way she was. Talitha made things happen. She wasn\u2019t intimidated or awed by anyone. She said, \u2018Here\u2019s a great talk, let\u2019s all go to it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Making things happen has been a way of life for Washington \u201998 MS, \u201901 Ph.D. She holds fast to the phrase \u201cI\u2019ll find a way or make one,\u201d which is the motto of Atlanta University (now part of Clark Atlanta University), the oldest historically Black university in the South, where Washington is a professor of mathematics.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also her mantra, she says, as she directs the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Data Science Initiative to bring underrepresented voices into the exploding field of data science. She likes how so much lives in the statement: possibility, resolve, carving a new path.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have all these examples of how data science has negatively impacted Black people,\u201d she says, noting facial recognition software and all manner of algorithms where the science can lead to more harm than good \u201cif data sets aren\u2019t culturally relevant or if they aren\u2019t taking into account all the nuances. Last year there was a big cry from the math community to stop doing work with the police because of predictive policing models built on biased algorithms. The consciousness of the data science community was born out of what happened to George Floyd and others.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the AUC, Washington is flipping that narrative, working to \u201cdevelop talent and become a significant producer of African Americans with expertise and credentials in data science,\u201d she says. \u201cWe also want to create new knowledge and lead national efforts to address race, gender, and social justice aspects of data science, focusing on topics that impact Black America.\u201d<\/p>\n