Promoting small data science, one girl at a time!

SmallData joined Girls’ Day on the mission to promote female representation in scientific fields such as mathematics, computer science, biomedicine and statistics / systems modeling.

On April 3, 2025, 8 girls aged 12 to 15 from the Freiburg city area schools arrived in our headquarters to take part on a day of scientific activities, led by our early career researchers Maren Hackenberg, Masako Kaufmann, Hannah Habenicht and Maria Krißmer. The goal: to share the life and work of a researcher and open a space for girls to question and express their interest in such a career path.

The program included:

• A round of “Matching Bingo”: participants went around a room getting to know each other and filling a bingo chart with matching hobbies/passions.
• Presentations on the diverse professional career paths of some of our own female researchers: many different backgrounds and interests can lead to science!
• “Disease outbreak” research challenge: participants were divided into groups and had to find out the culprit in a mysterious disease outbreak using population data analysis and gene matching techniques.

Overall, the activities served to spark curiosity, foster interest and to experience first-hand what a day’s work of a female researcher in SmallData is like.

We are very grateful to all participants for the enthusiasm shared during the day and wish them the best in their ongoing studies!

Marc Schumacher

Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics,
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center –
University of Freiburg