Alumni Story

Yelina Piedra
Phd. Library & Information Sciences en Information Sciences Department- Communication Faculty- University of Havana

Trieste Summer School 2024

It has been an honour and a privilege to have recently participated in the CODATA-Research Data Alliance (RDA) School for Research Data Science and the Advanced Workshops for Research Data Science, which took place from the 12-30 August 2024 at the International Centre of Theoretical Physics Abdus Salam (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. 

Being selected among around 400 applicants from all over the world has been the most impressive professional experience in the last three years of my career. I was motivated to apply by the importance of developing my current professional profile and the need to update it in accordance with the Open Science movement; acquiring necessary skills that allow me to actively contribute to the new research projects in which I am immersed. I was also looking forward to having the opportunity to improve my competencies in the English language and to establish professional relationships with participants from other parts of the world. 

I joined the Data School to gain new methodological research and data analysis tools that would give me the possibility to research a topic of extreme importance for my country, in particular and for the Caribbean and the Global South. This topic is related to the impact of entrepreneurial Afro-descendant women in the current process of economic transformations. This research contributes to Agenda 2030 goals: decent work and economic growth, gender equality, and reduced inequalities. I was also looking to develop data skills that would allow me to contribute to the data literacy of Information Sciences students, teachers, and researchers and to the functioning of the bibliometric unit of the Communication Faculty of the University of Havana, Cuba. 

Starting to explore the world of Data Science was not easy at all, but discovering new research approaches motivates me to continue learning. Thanks to CODATA-RDA support and the best team of instructors, I had the possibility of discovering topics like Open and Responsible Research, Research Data Management, Unix/Shell, Git, Python, Predatory Publishing, Author Carpentry, Data Visualization, Information Security, Introduction to Machine Learning, Artificial Neural Networks, Research Computational Infrastructure and IoT / Big Data Analytics. All of them were impactful for me. During the School, I went out of my comfort scientific domain to start exploring the Data Science field. 

I am grateful to the professors for sharing their knowledge and teaching complex content in a very simple way. All hands-on activities and practical sessions were accurate and useful. I was fascinated with every lab session, mainly those on RDM, streaming and real-time data processing, author carpentry, and neural networks. Even on Sunday, we were happy to practice and keep on learning! 

I didn’t find just classmates; I found new friends.

I had the opportunity to network with other students and instructors. I didn’t find just classmates; I found new friends. I am grateful to all of them, to the professors, and to the coordination of the programme for making me feel that I belong to this family! 

Now that I have found all the professional answers I was looking for, it’s time to apply what I’ve learned and perfect my data skills. I’ll always be grateful for this opportunity!!!

Connect with Yelina on LinkedIn.