DataBytes: Calling all Data Scientists...Introducing ROBOKOP
2025-12-10 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | via Zoom
ROBOKOP (Reasoning Over Biomedical Objects linked in Knowledge Oriented Pathways) is a knowledge graph system that aims to accelerate and advance scientific discovery by enabling users to simultaneously explore dozens of integrated and harmonized sources of biomedical knowledge. ROBOKOP has been applied to suggest mechanistic insights into biomedical questions and hypotheses for subsequent testing across multiple domains, including hepatotoxicity, environmental determinants of disease, drug repurposing and mechanism of action, and others.
During this NCDS webinar, Dr. Karamarie Fecho will provide a short presentation and live demonstration of ROBOKOP, followed by an opportunity for attendees to pose questions to ROBOKOP and explore answers.
After this webinar, attendees will:
● Gain a general understanding of knowledge graphs
● Be aware of the ROBOKOP knowledge graph system and know how to access it
● Have a basic understanding of how to query ROBOKOP and interpret results
Funding
ROBOKOP is funded by NIEHS with joint support from the NIH Office of Data Science (#U24ES035214). Drs. Alexander Tropsha and Chris Bizon, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, serve as Principal Investigators.
About Dr. Karamarie Fecho
Dr. Fecho holds a PhD degree in Neurobiology from UNC’s School of Medicine. Her scientific background is broad and spans the clinical and translational spectrum, from basic science to clinical research to healthcare quality assurance/improvement and data science.
Kara currently serves as Founder and CEO of Copperline Professional Solutions, which is a small biomedical consulting company that she founded in 2010. Through Copperline, Kara has engaged with numerous academic organizations, pharmaceutical companies, tech start-ups, and non-profits, providing a wide array of services, products, and expertise.
Kara also is a Research Affiliate at RENCI, where in recent years she has been focused on the development and application of biomedical knowledge graphs. This webinar will focus on her work on the ROBOKOP (Reasoning Over Biomedical Objects linked in Knowledge Oriented Pathways) knowledge graph system.
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LinkedIn Like a Data Scientist: Strategic Networking for the Digital Age
2026-01-27 12:00 - 13:00
We’re delighted to host Becky Brown once again for an updated session exploring LinkedIn best practices. Becky has held multiple positions at SAS during her decades-long career at the software giant. These days, Brown helps sales leaders leverage digital platforms to build stronger connections and more opportunities. Learn her favorite techniques and tricks of the trade.
About Becky Brown
Becky is a trainer and coach for sales teams wanting to leverage digital platforms like LinkedIn and Sales Navigator to build relationships, uncover opportunities, and create fuller pipelines. She manages a Social Selling certification program and runs global communications for the team.
Becky brings a broad set of experiences from 37 years in sales, marketing and enablement in the technology industry. You can find Becky on LinkedIn and volunteering for the sea turtle patrol in her beloved Emerald Isle, NC.

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Spring 2026 NCDS Virtual Career Panel
2026-02-26 17:00 - 18:00
Join panelists working in sports analytics, growth equity, and data and AI security as we explore the paths that lead to a career in data science. The journey looks different for everyone, but a dream job is the destination. We’ll discuss a few examples of what it takes to get there. We’ll also dive into the hard and soft skills that turn a top candidate into the perfect candidate for a role in this competitive field.
Panelists:

Leena Dave – Truist | Senior Vice President, Data Governance Metrics and Reporting
Peter Engler – Seattle Seahawks | Seattle Seahawks Football Research Assistant
Namrata Jumani – Radian Capital | Associate
Zixin Nie – RTI International | Data Privacy Specialist

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Foundations of AI: Intro to Generative AI for Coders - Accelerated
2026-05-14 15:00 - 17:00
This will be an accelerated version of our popular “Intro to Generative AI” course, intended to give an overview of what Generative AI is, how it works from a high level, and how to use basic technical tools to leverage Generative AI.
Those who take this course will have the basic knowledge needed to use LLMs to create useful tools, and will have the understanding behind the technology to improve their prompt engineering skills as well.
This course is ideal for people who are interested in the Advanced Generative AI for Coders and Deep Dive into Retrieval Augmented Generation courses but have not taken classes in the technical basics of generative AI.
Prerequisites: Intermediate Python, some familiarity with AI/Machine Learning is helpful but not required.
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Scholarship Information
NCDS is pleased to offer a limited number of full scholarships to faculty, staff, and students affiliated with nonprofit higher education institutions.

To apply for a full scholarship, complete this Google form.
DO NOT complete the UNC Event Registration form unless you are asked to complete it.
Scholarship Recipients will be notified no later than Friday, May 1, 2026.

Foundations of AI: Advanced Generative AI for Coders
2026-05-21 13:00 - 17:00
This new course will introduce more advanced topics in Generative AI, including a deeper look at some of the tools we touch on in the intro course as well as introducing new topics like agentic AI and the broader aspects of a modern AI workflow. We’ll go over deterministic workflows versus autonomous agents, advanced prompting, schema-constrained outputs, and more to take your generative AI knowledge to the next level and help you get the most out of the power of Generative AI as a coder. After taking this course, you should be able to use and understand Generative AI beyond its use in chatbots. It is strongly recommended to have some knowledge of generative AI, NLP, and Python before taking this course.
Prerequisites: Intermediate Python skills and a basic understanding of generative AI – if you do not have any background in generative AI, you are encouraged to register for the accelerated Intro to Generative AI class offered before this course to get up to speed on the basics.
Register for the Event
Scholarship Information
NCDS is pleased to offer a limited number of full scholarships to faculty, staff, and students affiliated with nonprofit higher education institutions.

To apply for a full scholarship, complete this Google form.
DO NOT complete the UNC Event Registration form unless our staff asks you to complete it.
Scholarship Recipients will be notified no later than Friday, May 1, 2026.

Foundations of AI: Deep Dive into Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
2026-05-28 15:00 - 17:00
This brief course will take what we’ve learned in the Intro to Generative AI (or Accelerated GenAI) course and go deeper in the world of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems. You’ll learn to upgrade your RAG with query rewriting, reranking, citation generation, and more sophisticated evaluation tools. We’ll also touch on agentic RAG. You should come out of this class with the tools to make a more sophisticated RAG system. It is strongly suggested to have knowledge of Generative AI and Python coding, NLP is useful but not required.
Prerequisites: Intermediate Python skills, knowledge of generative AI may be useful but is not required.
Register for the Event
Scholarship Information
NCDS is pleased to offer a limited number of full scholarships to faculty, staff, and students affiliated with nonprofit higher education institutions.

To apply for a full scholarship, complete this Google form.
DO NOT complete the UNC Event Registration form unless our staff asks you to complete it.
Scholarship Recipients will be notified no later than Friday, May 1, 2026.
