So You Want to Be a Data Scientist

Ellie Burton’s summer job might be described as “dental detective.”

Using 3-D images of bones, she and teammates Kevin Kuo and GiSeok Choi are teaching a computer to calculate similarities between the fine bumps, grooves and ridges on teeth from dozens of lemurs, chimps and other animals.

They were among more than 50 students — majoring in everything from political science to engineering — who gathered on the third floor of Gross Hall this week for a lunch to share status updates on some unusual summer jobs.

The budding data scientists included 40 students selected for a summer research program at Duke called Data+, supported by Bass Connections. For ten weeks from mid-May to late July, students work in small teams on projects using real-world data.

Read Robin Smith’s post on the Duke Research Blog.