By Andrea Figueroa, HCDE PhD student

I attended the Interrogating Data Science workshop with my paper "The Lineage of Human-Centered Data Science". It was a really good experience! We were divided into breakout groups with similar interests and after brief descriptions of everyone's paper we had really good discussions. We discussed HCDS intersectionality, the data science mindset and the lineage of the field. It was encouraging to see people interested in my paper and enjoying my work. I made a few connections and I'm really happy with the outcome.

The conference itself was virtual and that entails a lot of changes, bringing advantages and disadvantages. I liked that I was able to check the presentations I was interested in before the sessions. I was also able to easily jump between sessions. The issues with the conference being virtual were that it is really difficult to socialize and make connections. Zoom fatigue is real and going to every session it's exhausting. It was also hard to keep up with the program as every presentation was really short and not every session was synced with the others.  

Overall, I really liked the experience and I'm happy I was able to attend. This is my first time attending a conference in the field and I'm sure it would have been so much better in person. Nonetheless, I was able to learn about amazing work being done in the field. I really hope to be able to attend next year, but this time presenting my own work.