SMWU Holds Joint Data Science Conference at USC
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- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2026-08-10
Sookmyung Women's University's Big Data Innovation Convergence College Project held the "2026 Big Data Innovation Convergence College Project-USC Conference" at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles from July 20 (Mon.) to 31 (Fri.).
Organized as part of the Advanced Big Data Innovation Convergence College Project (Big Data), the program brought together 33 students from three South Korean universities—SMWU, University of Seoul, and Jeonbuk National University—for an intensive data science education program. SMWU sent the largest delegation of 22 students and covered tuition, dormitory fees, part of the airfare, and travelers' insurance.
The curriculum focused on practical training in data science fundamentals, machine learning algorithms, data visualization, and predictive modeling. Students strengthened their data analysis skills through lectures and hands-on sessions led by USC faculty.
A special lecture by Dr. Jang-won Kim of Oracle Health AI and a technical talk by Cyrus Shahabi, director of a research institute at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering, drew particularly strong responses from participants.
During the hackathon, students identified real-world problems to solve and used "vibe coding" to develop apps, websites, and other digital services. Working in teams, they carried the projects from ideation through service design and development, presenting their final results to judges and peers.
Three teams featuring SMWU students—Triple S, Team Ate, and IN-N-OUT Of Time—were named second- and third-place winners. The teams were recognized for their strong analytical and collaborative skills, as well as their creativity, technical execution, and overall project potential.
The hackathon was also covered by the Korea Daily, a local Korean-language newspaper in Los Angeles, which highlighted how students transformed ideas into concrete results in a short time frame and the cross-cultural exchange between the two countries' students.
"This program gave students the opportunity to gain problem-solving experience in a global setting and expand their data-driven thinking," said Cheol-yeon Kim, head of the Big Data Innovation Convergence College Project. "We plan to continue actively cultivating convergence talent going forward."