The first Women in Network Science Collabathon will be held at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, from May 1st to May 5th, 2023. Apply by January 31st to participate!

Network science and many other research areas increasingly rely on computer-aided research. Developing robust and shareable code repositories helps researchers disseminate their computational tools and contribute methods to existing code libraries (e.g., NetworkX, iGraph, graph-tool, or XGI), thereby increasing the impact of their research. Unfortunately, online programming communities like Github and StackOverflow are often dominated by men, and collaborative coding projects present opportunities for intentional and unintentional gender discrimination that discourage women and non-binary researchers from participating.

The Women in Network Science Collabathon will bring together graduate students who identify as women or non-binary researchers to conduct research together through collaborative coding. This Collabathon aims to create a welcoming and inclusive space in which women and non-binary researchers can

(1) improve their coding skills,
(2) discover and cultivate their passion for computational research,
(3) network with peers and start collaborative research projects, and
(4) learn new skills from their peers as well as the network scientists, code developers, and graphic designers and Northeastern University.

Participation Requirements

Participants must be familiar with writing code in Python.

Participation Costs

There are no registration fees. Meals and accommodation (shared rooms at Revolution Hotel) are provided. Applicants anticipating high travel expenses can apply for a $500 travel scholarship through the application form.

Application

To apply for the Collabathon, please complete our application form below. The deadline for applications is 11:59pm US Eastern Time on January 31st, 2023.

Additionally, please ask a current or former research mentor to send a reference letter for you to wins.society@gmail.com with subject line "WiNS Collabathon Reference Letter for [First Name] [Last Name]". The deadline for reference letters is 11:59pm US Eastern Time on January 31st, 2023.

Organizers

Alice Schwarze* (Dartmouth College, USA)

Brooke Foucault-Welles* (Northeastern University)

Margaret Clark (Northeastern University, USA)

Sasheen Joseph (Northeastern University, USA)

Eugenia Perekhodko (Northeastern University, USA)

Vincent Traag (Leiden University, Netherlands)

Fabio Zanini (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)

*lead organizers

Partners and Support

The Women in Network Science Collabathon is made possible by the support of our partners: The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, and Northeastern University.