{"id":405472,"date":"2019-10-29T16:16:18","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T20:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=405472"},"modified":"2019-10-31T09:57:22","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T13:57:22","slug":"data-science-internship-career-communications-405472","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/data-science-internship-career-communications-405472\/","title":{"rendered":"From intern to data scientist, in a new University role"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Harrison
Harrison Frank, data scientist and design researcher (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEverything has patterns,\u201d observes Harrison Frank \u201919. And once you recognize that, \u201cthe kinds of problems that you are able to solve are everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank, who graduated from the University of Rochester<\/a> with a degree in applied mathematics, is now bringing his expertise in pattern recognition to the University\u2019s Office of Communications<\/a>, where he has served as a data scientist and design researcher since July.<\/p>\n

Bridging the gap between data science and communications<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The link between data science and communications did not always seem so clear cut.<\/p>\n

Frank started as a data science intern in University Communications, a position that did not exist before. The internship was sponsored by the Rochester Data Science Consortium<\/a>, a research center founded in 2017 to be a catalyst for data science comprehension and adoption in the region.<\/p>\n

Just over a year ago, not only were Frank, his internship, and his sponsoring organization all relatively new on campus. So, too, was Frank\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to the University of Rochester almost two years ago, and, when I did, my role didn\u2019t exist,\u201d says Brian Piper, the director of content strategy and assessment in University Communications. \u201cThe University wanted me to start looking at all the communications data that they had. They were collecting a lot of data, but they weren\u2019t using it as effectively as they could, and there were opportunities to integrate the data more fully into their strategic decision-making processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper\u2019s office in Wallis Hall was just yards away from Wegmans Hall, home of the Goergen Institute for Data Science<\/a>. \u201cI had heard about the new and exciting things going on in the [institute],\u201d he says. \u201cI thought, we share the same goal, maybe they can point me in the right direction.\u201d To his surprise, Walt Johnson, the executive director of both the Rochester Data Science Consortium and the Rochester Center of Excellence in Data Science, helped secure a data science intern for University Communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that is how we met Harrison,\u201d Piper says.<\/p>\n

Creating media metrics (and helping your colleagues save time)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI see it like this: data science and, more specifically, applied mathematics, simply provide a structure for utilizing, recognizing, and formalizing patterns,\u201d says Frank.<\/p>\n

As Frank observed Piper, he noticed some patterns in his boss\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018You know, I can automate that,\u201d Piper recalls Frank telling him.<\/p>\n

Frank\u2019s assistance proved game changing. \u201cSuddenly, reports that I spent three hours on were being updated automatically,\u201d Piper says. \u201cChunks of my calendar were now free, opened up by simple machine-learning algorithms. Soon I had Harrison speak with all the colleagues in my department. Later, when the period of Harrison\u2019s internship ended, the decision to bring Harrison on full-time was a no brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see my work as investigative listening,\u201d Frank says. \u201cMy job is not to dictate how others should work according to our data infrastructure. Rather, it is to learn what objectives others have for their own work and see if we can find a way of using pattern recognition, and other computational methods, to get better at the things that they are already doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through his \u2018investigative listening,\u2019 Frank, in collaboration with Piper and his colleagues in Communications, developed a \u201cMedia Quality Score\u201d to assess the value of external media reporting on the University. The metric, comprised of eight key factors, allows the team to better track which stories are enhancing the reputation of the University, which stories are falling flat, and, most importantly, why.<\/p>\n

That information offers a valuable guide to the writers, videographers, photographers, and graphic artists whose job it is to help draw attention to the University\u2019s historic and contributions to research, teaching, clinical care, and the arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality we are applying the same principles of consumer marketing; however, we are not advertising a product, but rather championing a reputation,\u201d says Piper. \u201cThere are a lot of great things happening at the University of Rochester, and not enough people know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper now spends much of his time visiting with the heads of departments around the University and the Medical Center to help them adopt these same strategies. The consortium has sponsored a second data science intern, inside the Medical Center\u2019s communications department.<\/p>\n

Frank, meanwhile, is happy to remain for the time being in his role in University Communications. That\u2019s saying a lot, given the opportunities that abound in data science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is, I could have gone to Silicon Valley,\u201d he admits, pointing to the considerable draw the Bay Area has on his peers. \u201cBut the culture there is: you live there, you eat there, you sleep there, you never go home. You don\u2019t have a life. You kill yourself to achieve someone else\u2019s vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Rochester, \u201cI have the autonomy to build systems from scratch, learn how these systems are built, and to try things out. We are now in the process of building our data infrastructure from the ground up, and in the process we are learning together.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Data
Data science and content strategy are combined in this visualization of media quality scores over time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The link between data science and communications may not always seem so clear cut, but Harrison Frank \u201919 is bringing his expertise in pattern recognition and strategic problem-solving to the University\u2019s communications efforts as the new data scientist and design researcher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1212,"featured_media":405482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,11716,25592,23982],"class_list":["post-405472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-alumni","tag-data-science","tag-goergen-institute-for-data-science-and-artificial-intelligence","tag-university-communications"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom intern to data scientist, in a new University role<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harrison Frank \u201919 is bringing his expertise in 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