News

Themes of Day 1, JupyterCon 2025: Collaboration and Modularity

November 5, 2025
Silas Santini

Rising to the challenge by leveraging collaboration and modularity were strong themes of Day 1 at JupyterCon 2025. Keynote speaker David Donoho spoke of data science as a continuous challenge with researchers both pushing the envelope and collaborating; papers are built on common datasets and ultimately share methods that anyone with the requisite expertise can use (Donoho, 2017). This reflected my formative experiences with data science; as an undergraduate completing an honors thesis, I modified a published...

Shaping the Future of Open Source: 2i2c and BIDS

October 23, 2025
Rowan King

On October 16, a range of professionals, students, and open source advocates gathered for a panel discussion led by Kirstie Whitaker, Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) Executive Director, at the AI Futures Lab. She discussed the new membership plan with 2i2c (International Interactive Computing Collaboration), walking through...

Getting ready for JupyterCon 2025: How UC Berkeley is Using Jupyter to Support Healthcare providers, Geospatial Data, and Data Science Education

October 15, 2025
Kirstie Whitaker

This month there are many of us across UC Berkeley excited to be presenting at JupyterCon 2025. Hosted out of beautiful San Diego we’ll be sharing work deepening research impact in health and geoscience, delivering the highest quality data science education with JupyterHub and Jupyter Book, and improving the accessibility of Jupyter infrastructure.

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Min Ragan-Kelley and his journey back to BIDS

October 13, 2025
Kirstie Whitaker

The Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) welcomes Min Ragan-Kelley, Senior Open Infrastructure Architect, back to the UC Berkeley campus after spending a decade working in Norway. He recently sat down with Kirstie Whitaker, BIDS Executive Director, to discuss his history and his future at BIDS -- he plays a key role in realizing the vision for BIDS as a space for open scholarship, open...

Building Together: Two Days of GeoJupyter Community Innovation

September 4, 2025
Jamilah Karah

Over the course of two lively days, 25 developers, researchers, and enthusiasts from a range of backgrounds came together in Berkeley for the GeoJupyter Hackathon. The event was marked by the energy and momentum generated by people working side by side. Participants convened at the AI Futures Lab on day one, which provided a space made for collaboration, with...

Nicole Starosielski presents "Facilitating Sustainability: Cable Landing Stations and the Alternative History of Network Architectures"

August 29, 2025
Lilli Wessling Hart

On March 31, Nicole Starosielski, Professor of Film & Media at UC Berkeley, presented work at BIDS on undersea cables and digital infrastructure “Facilitating Sustainability: Cable Landing Stations and the Alternative History of Network Architectures”.

Starosielski has been doing research on the physical installations that support Internet traffic, including data centers,...

A Summer of Collaboration at BIDS

August 21, 2025
Jamilah Karah

If I had to pick one word to sum up this summer at BIDS, it would be admiration. Admiration for the people, for the work, and for the ways those two things intersect at UC Berkeley.

I studied Philosophy with a minor in Digital and Computational Studies, so I came into this internship with some context for critical thinking and digital tools, but not with the technical expertise many here already have. That meant I often found myself following conversations that quickly outpaced what I could piece together. But the most valuable parts...

Branching out in Open Source: My Summer Experience

August 18, 2025
Kyle Cheng

This summer, I had the unique opportunity to intern at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS). It was an eye-opening experience that taught me much about open source software.

Having just graduated from UC Berkeley and taken a few data science courses, I was already familiar with Python and its many libraries. However, I had never been exposed to the inner workings of an open source project: the infrastructure, maintainers, and community efforts that allow Python to power countless projects worldwide.

Under the guidance of BIDS Executive Director...

Reflections from a Summer at BIDS

August 15, 2025
Tyler Hawthorne

As I wrap up my internship at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), I’ve found myself thinking not just about the work I did this summer, but about how much I’ve learned, how many incredible people I’ve met, and how deeply this experience expanded my understanding of open science, collaboration, and community.

Coming into the summer, I didn’t fully know what to expect. I had some familiarity with GitHub, data analysis, and research, but open source? Documentation standards? Pull requests? These ideas were all new territory. Over the course of the internship, I explored all...

Announcing the AI Futures Lab: A visionary partnership between BIDS and UC Investments

May 28, 2025
BIDS Staff

The BIDS Leadership Team is proud to announce a new hub for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data science, and society. In partnership with UC Investments, the AI Futures Lab is a pioneering model that directly connects UC’s intellectual capital with long-term investment strategy.

The Lab will occupy 5,000 square feet of flexible office space, conference rooms, and a seminar space one block from campus, where faculty and researchers can convene and work collaboratively and discussion between research groups and projects will...