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Millennial Trains Project: A Journey Through Data Initiatives Across America

From Chicago to the Bay Area, this journey uncovers innovative data uses and policy concerns. Collaboration between local developers, government, and nonprofits is key to driving progress.

As we can see in the image there are buildings, fence, vehicles, current polls, pipe and on the top...
As we can see in the image there are buildings, fence, vehicles, current polls, pipe and on the top there is sky.

Millennial Trains Project: A Journey Through Data Initiatives Across America

The author, having recently returned from the Millennial Trains Project, shares insights from a ten-day rail journey across seven cities. The trip focused on data initiatives, policy concerns, and the importance of collaboration between local developers, government, and nonprofits.

In Chicago, the author met with the city's Director of Analytics, learning about Smart Chicago's support for data-driven startups. The trip also took them to Salt Lake City, where discussions with Space Monkey, Arabella Advisors, and Ancestry.com revealed innovative uses of data in data centers, philanthropy, and parallel computing.

The Bay Area visit included a meeting with Yelp about their LIVES initiative with health departments and news of UC Berkeley's new online Masters in Data Science program. Elsewhere, the author discussed data anonymization policy with UC Boulder's Silicon Flatirons in Denver and learned about a planned app contest in Colorado's Department of State. In Omaha, an actuary at a major insurance firm shared insights into innovative data initiatives in auto and property insurance. Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University offered insights into applied statistics, energy-efficient office behaviors, and sensor data standardization.

The author's trip began and ended in Washington, D.C., where they started synthesizing their findings into key policy insights.

The Millennial Trains Project highlighted the diversity of data initiatives across the country, from startups to universities to government and nonprofits. The author's trip underscored the importance of strong executive leadership and collaboration between local developers, government staffers, and nonprofits in fostering robust data science communities. These insights will inform future policy discussions and developments in the data-driven landscape.

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