
An inclusive community for catalyzing and scaling data science for social needs
WHO WE ARE
The West Big Data Innovation Hub, one of four regional hubs funded by the National Science Foundation, includes contributors and data enthusiasts from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and a global network of partners.
WHAT WE DO
Our mission is to build and strengthen strategic partnerships across academia, industry, nonprofits, and government — connecting research, education, and practice to harness the data revolution.
HOW TO JOIN US
The West Hub is your Hub. Whether it is participating in a data challenge or carpentry workshop or working towards a more resilient water future—and everything in between—we invite you to join our diverse and growing team of stakeholders that envisions a community empowered to contribute to a thriving West.
PRIORITIES

Raise awareness of regional opportunities, inspiring new contributions and commitments
Catalyze team formation across academia, industry, nonprofits, and government
Develop and enable translational data science pilot projects in our thematic areas
Support data science education, training, and workforce development
FEATURED WORK
The Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon 2022 Excellence in Research Award: Phase II
The Excellence in Research Award (Phase II) is open from March 8 - June 30, 2022. Participants in Phase II will have the opportunity to choose to explore one dataset among several, spanning sectors including healthcare, energy, and environmental protection. Participants will also have opportunities to take deeper dives into their dataset and tackle a range of impactful real-world tasks. Teams will submit a research report at the end of Phase II.

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

Applying Big Data to Restore Nevada’s Walker Lake
Part of the ancestral home of the Northern Paiute people, Nevada's Walker Basin has provided a source of water for the area's booming agricultural industry for many years. However, to support agriculture needs, water is diverted from the Walker River to irrigate crops in California and Nevada - instead of flowing naturally into the basin's natural desert terminal lake, Walker Lake. Due to the lake's declining water levels from agricultural diversions, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) have increased so much that the lake can no longer support its native fish and wildlife populations such as the Lahontan cutthroat trout, which is now nonexistent in the lake.
