The Low Down

     Minah Kim '17SEAS                        Erin Vaughn '19CC                    Rebecca Murray '18SEAS                 Colette McCullagh '17SEAS

In this episode of The Future Is..., we hear from some young Columbians—a group of students (and some now young alumni) who together lead the Columbia chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

Minah Kim '17SEAS, Colette McCullagh '17SEAS, Rebecca Murray '18SEAS, and Erin Vaughn '18CC talk about their work on campus, what engineers watch on Netflix, and the head start they have on mentorship.

The secret to their success? Even their free time is useful: these girls' idea of a fun time is taking free classes on iTunes U!

SWE is an international organization with professional and collegiate chapters around the world. The student chapter at Columbia provides professional development opportunities, serves as a support group for women engineers on campus, and conducts community outreach to introduce local high school and middle students to engineering. Learn more about SWE on their website and Facebook page.

In case you haven't heard, data science is huge right now. Not only did Columbia make headlines when it first offered a masters degree in data science in 2013, but Columbia is also launching a new data science open online course. 

Now, if you're scratching your head because you don't know what data science is, you basically think of it as being the process of extracting insights and new understanding from data. Or (as I like to think of it) data science is the process of translating the story that data is telling. And, arguably, one of the fastest growing mediums for storytelling is podcasts. So, podcasts about data science? Well, that's a marriage made in digital heaven.

If you're curious about the stories that the world's data is telling, have we got some podcasts for you. Here are four of the best data science podcasts to listen to, whether you're a science nerd, math geek, machine-obsessed, or just like a good story: