Title: Education, Outreach, and Workforce Development
Presenter(s): Stephen Addison, Jennifer Fowler, and Karl Schubert
Date presented: June 30, 2021

Description

Through DART, we plan to implement a wide range of professional development and data science education activities to engage K20 learners in Arkansas. Our vision is that Arkansas will have a statewide educational ecosystem, where learners of any age can receive a designed, consistent, scaffolded education in data science, with further educational opportunities or job opportunities at appropriate points in their careers. To accomplish this, our mission is to create a model data science and analytics program for Arkansas schools that will promote problem-based and experiential-based pedagogy in critical thinking and analysis, technology familiarity, and a foundation in math and statistics.

Presenter Bios

Dr. Stephen Addison currently serves as the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Central Arkansas where he is a Professor of Physics. In addition he serves as Co-Director of UCA STEMteach and as Director of Cybersecurity programs and UCA’s Arkansas Cyber Range. His academic research focuses on wave propagation and signal processing. Stephen earned a B.Sc. in physics from Cardiff University in Wales and an M.S. and Ph.D in physics from the University of Mississippi.

Jennifer Fowler currently serves as the Director of Education, Outreach, and Diversity, where she implements STEM outreach activities, workforce development and education programs, supports underserved groups in STEM, maintains social media sites, and administers the internal reporting database. She is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Molecular Biosciences at Arkansas State University with an emphasis in artificial intelligence and machine learning. She received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Arkansas.

Dr. Karl Schubert is a Professor of Practice and Associate Director, Data Science Program, for the College of Engineering, the Sam M. Walton College of Business, and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Arkansas. His academic research focuses on providing Data Science and Innovation programs for STEM education, and student, faculty and industry data science and innovation engagement. Schubert also serves as a consultant specializing in innovation, entrepreneurship, technology, and organizational optimization for new and ongoing companies. Karl earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the U of A, his master’s in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky, and his Ph.D. in Engineering from the U of A. Karl has been awarded 9 US and International patents and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET). He also has 35+ years of industry experience including serving as a CIO, CTO, COO, CEO, and Executive Chairman for start-ups, mid-size, and enterprise companies such as IBM, Dell, and Lifetouch.