Ann Arbor Data Dive (A2 Data Dive) featured member: Vincent Wei, marketing chair

Degree: B.S. in Data Science at LSA, ‘25

Home: Guangzhou, China

Goal of organization: Ann Arbor Data Dive (A2 Data Dive) is a student-run program that facilitates collaboration, practical education, and service events that increase data literacy in the community through shared learning experience, technical workshops, and collaboration with local non-profit organizations and data professionals in our annual Data Dive events.

Why I’m involved: A2 Data Dive is an organization wherein I could see myself gaining hands-on experience with data science, making new friends, and engaging with local communities in a more proactive way.

Membership: Anyone can join! We are open to all and welcome people of all skill levels and will hold boot camps throughout the year to help you prepare for your exciting data journey. The members of A2 Data Dive constitute a highly diverse community in terms of academic interests and degree programs. With members not only from UMSI but also graduate and undergraduate students from various schools and colleges at U-M, I’m lucky to have the opportunity to learn more about these programs through connecting and collaborating with other members in our events. There are 112 members and 8 board members.

Noteworthy: As a community of data enthusiasts with a passion for social and civic service, we aim to apply our data skills in various real-world settings that serve the community around us. Every year, A2 Data Dive will partner with different non-profit organizations in our region to help collect and analyze data and accomplish small projects, creating a lasting impact in our community. 

A good reason to join: To improve your data skills, engage in civic service, expand your network with data experts and professionals, meet new friends with the same passion, and have fun.

Important events/activities: Data Dives and data workshops/bootcamps! Data Dives are the core events of our club during which Data Dive participants present and showcase the findings and work they’ve done in collaboration with our local clients for the past semester. Data workshops are held throughout the school year to help participants increase their data skills in related fields such as data visualization, machine learning, and SQL tutorial. 

Meetings and activities: Board meetings are held on a weekly basis to discuss logistics and operation of the club, and Data Dives as well as workshops are being hosted throughout the school year. 

Time commitment: When it comes to our workshops, attendees will find that they are about two hours long. Our Data Dive event is an all day event that can take up to five hours. Our board members also spend about one to three hours a week meeting and organizing these events. 

Interesting project: This is my first year at Data Dive as a board member, so I’ve only worked on one project so far, which is helping organize and market a SQL workshop.

How to get involved: Everyone is welcome to join and participate in any of our club events. Stay informed by subscribing to our email list and follow us on social media. Board recruitment information will also be posted at the start of each semester. 

More information: Please contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or comments at [email protected] or reach out to us on Facebook (@annarbordatadive), Twitter (@A2DataDive), or Instagram (@A2DataDive).

A2 Data Dive facilitates practical education and service events that increase data literacy in the community. Throughout the school year, we offer a variety of technical workshops and data jams/dives, which provide students and community members the opportunity to collaborate with our clients (local non-profits) to work with data sets in context. This can include programming, analysis or data visualization. You don’t need to be a data expert to get involved! We welcome participants with all backgrounds and skill levels.