• 9/28 class essay: I’d like to get to know you better. What is your general background—in a few sentences, what do you want me to know about you? What are your interests academically, intellectually, or professionally? Basically, what do you care about (no wrong answers here)? What do you think data science is? Based on your conception of data science, in a very broad sense, how (if at all) do you think it can be harnessed to improve the lives of people (their quality of life), the environment, our understanding of ourselves or nature, business & economics, everyday problem solving, or anything else?
• My name is Carlo Mehegan. My father was raised in Virginia, and my mother was raised in Manila, in the Philippines. I grew up in Harrisonburg, which means I have a lot of JMU shirts in my wardrobe. I have two dogs whom I cherish, and you can find pictures of them here on this site. My main interest is in computer science. I’ve always enjoyed programming, and I’m lucky that I went to a high school that was expanding its computer science department. I took coding, cybersecurity, and game design classes, and joined all of the CS related clubs that Harrisonburg High School had. I find working with computers can be relaxing, and I’m majoring in computer science at W&M to move past the beginner programming knowledge I have and take more in-depth courses.
• Data science is interesting to me, especially big data. There is so much potential for the applications of data science today, but I feel like a lot of data is being wasted. Huge corporations like Facebook and Google can do incredible things with the data they collect, like improving accessibility features, or making lives better in ways I can’t even think of, but it instead, all of their efforts go towards making a profit and targeting ads. For small companies, there’s the same problem. With the data available today, startups can create tools that help their community or create open source tools that can help others. Instead, these startups have to make a product that will generate revenue. Efficiency and safety is overlooked in order to make money. The app what3words, which I talked about in the Blumenstock analysis, is a prime example of how these startups with great potential instead become predatory in order to turn a profit. I think the biggest barrier to improving the implementation of data science is in this need to monetize every online service.

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