Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

The aim of this Planning & Dissemination Grant is to bring together students and young researchers to increase big data analytical capacity, skills, and awareness in the next generation of health scientists. These objectives will be met during the 2018 National Student Conference of the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, which is a conference organized by students that focuses on discussing big data in Canada, showcasing student research, and providing students with opportunities for analytical training, skill development in the management of big data and communication of research findings. Participation in this conference will give students the opportunity to gain experience in creating and delivering oral and poster presentations, practice responding to questions from an interdisciplinary audience, and receive feedback about their research. Additionally, students will have the chance to learn about novel big data research. Student training will also occur in the form of workshops, including a big data analysis workshop facilitated by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences North, and an expert panel discussion featuring remarks from Dr. Laura Rosella (Canada Research Chair in Population Health Analytics), Dr. Richard Birtwhistle (Chair for the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network), and Dr. Stan Matwin (Director for the Institute for Big Data Analytics, Canada Research Chair in Visual Text Analytics). As this conference is a student-run initiative, the student organizers and CSEB student members will also gain experience with organizing and running an academic event. In summary, this conference represents a unique and valuable opportunity to train interdisciplinary health students in the use of big data and to enhance capacity in the next generation of health science researchers.