For These BU Students, Data Science Is Their Present and Their Future

They are using data in the worlds of biology, public health, and self-driving cars to explore new career paths

Collage: (from left to right) Photos of en Gardiner, Elizabeth Rosen, Serena Theobald, and Louie Belile. Ben Gardiner poses in front of dark grey backdrop with Apple laptop in hands. Elizabeth Rosen, a young white woman wearing glasses, a green blouse, white cardigan, and ripped jeans, stands with hands on hips and poses in front of a beige backdrop. Serena Theobald poses in front of dark grey backdrop. A young woman with long black hair and wearing a navy blue long-sleeved shirt and black pants, smiles and stands sideways to the camera with hands on hips. Louie Belile, a young Black mean wearing a white polo shirt and jeans, sits and poses with legs crossed in front of a grey backdrop.

Student Life

For These BU Students, Data Science Is Their Present and Their Future

They are using data in the worlds of biology, public health, and self-driving cars to explore new career paths

Data Science majors Ben Gardiner (CDS’25) (from left), Elizabeth Rosen (CDS’25), Serena Theobald (CDS’25), and Louie Belile (CDS’26).

December 5, 2022

Matt Kalman

Cydney Scott

Jackie Ricciardi

For these four students, the world of data science has opened up new career ideas, impacted them personally, and inspired them to use data to help change the world for the better.

Photo: Ben Gardiner poses in front of dark grey backdrop with Apple laptop in hands. A young white man with wearing glasses, a black short-sleeved shirt and greypants, stands and poses with his laptop in held in front of him. — Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Ben Gardiner (CDS’25)

“It’s really rewarding, really exciting. And it’s cool that I was able to use the school project and use it to get an opportunity in the real world.”

In the future, Ben Gardiner imagines his data science pursuits will most likely involve his interest in finance.

But more recently, the BU sophomore was able to get real-world data science experience by applying a project from his linear algebra class to help Syneos Health, a biopharmaceutical company, become more efficient.

Gardiner (CDS’25) and his classmates were assigned to divide up various Reddit articles based on words in their content. He soon thought about other applications for this approach, and Twitter seemed like a natural place to look. So he developed a social media analytics tool to analyze healthcare providers, and he used a Twitter application programming interface, or an API, to gather healthcare providers’ social media data.

“I was able to cluster them into groups that had insights and value,” says Gardiner. “And so how Syneos wants to apply that is to use and collect the tweets from their healthcare providers and from doctors, and then to sort them.”

He says the company can sort the healthcare providers into groups and then they can focus on certain groups for certain areas—for example, a group of urologists versus a group of cardiologists. “They can do that, and they can change their methods of outreach or their marketing methods based on various characteristics,” he explains. “It’s really rewarding, really exciting. And it’s cool that I was able to use the school project and use it to get an opportunity in the real world.”

Having proven his propensity for data science in the healthcare realm, Gardiner hopes to flex his interest in algorithmic trading and quantitative finance in the near future.

“I think I’ve always been interested in the financial world and things like the stock market,” Gardiner says. “And there’s so much data there that it seems like the perfect place for me to blend in data science.”

Photo: Elizabeth Rosen, a young white woman wearing glasses, a green blouse, white cardigan, and ripped jeans, stands with hands on hips and poses in front of a beige backdrop. — Photo by Cydney Scott

Elizabeth Rosen (CDS’25)

“I really like using my brain to solve puzzles,” she says. “I didn’t get to do that in biology or chemistry.”

When Elizabeth Rosen came to Boston University from her North Shore home, she was absolutely certain what she intended to study. After all, it was the subject that she’d loved since she was around age 12.

“I came to BU as a biology major; I wanted to go into infectious disease research,” Rosen (CDS’25) says.

Then she took a course in BU’s new Computing & Data Sciences program, DS-100, the Data Speak Louder Than Words introductory class, and she loved it. “It was my favorite class I have taken,” she says.

The course, she says, not only provided her with a strong introduction to using the Python programming language, but it forced her to think about data from a data science perspective. “I really like using my brain to solve puzzles,” she says. “I didn’t get to do that in biology or chemistry.”

It wasn’t just reading and lectures, but she was coding right along with the professor. When she did get to spend time in a lab doing research into Alzheimer’s disease, she discovered she didn’t love the hands-on lab experience, but she did relish the data analysis that came with it.

“I really wanted to focus on the computational side of things, and I hope to use data science in some form of public health,” Rosen says. “I love the intersection of health sciences and programming. Especially now that COVID has shown us how big it can be, and how we could foresee another COVID event happening. I want to be part of that solution.”

One day, she says, she could imagine herself working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or World Health Organization, in pursuit of public health solutions.

“It never occurred to me that data science could be like this for me,” Rosen says. “I had wanted to do biology since I was 12. I always wanted to help people. But COVID really interrupted my high school experience. I saw how it impacted different people, including my father. I never really saw myself in data science or computer science. But I really do like being at a computer, where I can implement my interests in life sciences on a bigger scale to help people. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

As for her childhood dream? She hasn’t completely abandoned it. She is still minoring in biology, while majoring in data science.

Photo: Serena Theobald poses in front of dark grey backdrop. A young woman with long black hair and wearing a navy blue long-sleeved shirt and black pants, smiles and stands sideways to the camera with hands on hips. — Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Serena Theobald (CDS’25)

“Statistical modeling and data science are very hand in hand,
so I feel like this research gig I have right now was kind of a supplement to my class learning and my core data science classes.”

Applying data science to public health is near and dear to Serena Theobald’s heart.

“I have a personal connection to applying data science to public health,” Theobald (CDS’25) says. “My grandmother, she suffered from acute myeloid leukemia, so I’ve always been interested in researching about cancers and finding the best decision-making model and coming up with the best decision-making processes for hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, so they can invent and come up with better and more improved treatments and drugs for patients like her.”

Theobald was born after her grandmother passed away. But stories her parents told her fostered a connection that’s being translated into the pursuit of her studies all these years later.

“I think even if you don’t know the person, but you relate to them in some way, it kind of fosters a deeper connection to what you’re interested in pursuing,” she says.

A Kilachand Honors College sophomore for the 2022-2023 school year, Theobald has already delved into the realm where data science helps public health organizations find better solutions to problems. As an undergraduate research assistant at the School of Public Health epidemiology department Causal Decision Lab of Eleanor Murray, an SPH assistant professor. Theobald modified a graduate student’s statistical model to assist the research into strategies related to HPV vaccines.

The model “weighs the costs and benefits of conventional HPV tests, and self-screening HPV tests,” she explains. “So we’re currently assessing the efficacy of doing one or the other in terms of providing long-term benefits and what is the most beneficial preventative treatment for women in terms of preventing cervical cancer.”

Theobald, who was once a competitive pianist, but now plays just for pleasure, plans to keep pursuing research opportunities that can complement her coursework.

“I was interested in joining the statistical modeling lab, to kind of get a real-world experience and head start in something that I can apply data science to,” she says. “Statistical modeling and data science are very hand in hand, so I feel like this research gig I have right now was kind of a supplement to my class learning and my core data science classes.”

The memory of her grandmother will continue to inspire Theobald’s studies and work, and, she hopes, one day will benefit all of society.

Photo: Louie Belile, a young Black mean wearing a white polo shirt and jeans, sits and poses with legs crossed in front of a grey backdrop. — Photo by Cydney Scott

Louie Belile (CDS’26)

“It’s just cool seeing how not everything is data-based and how it could be data-based—and it could help.”

Like many of us, COVID-induced lockdowns sent Louie Belile (CDS’26) in search of new ways to pass the time and to keep his mind sharp. Belile, who was studying at Boston Latin School at the time and is now a BU first-year, found his appetite for research.

“I feel like it mainly came from quarantine,” he says. “As COVID happened, I was kind of stuck at home, not doing much. My school sort of pulled back when it came to workload, so I was like, ‘I need something to do.’”

That was his first year taking computer science, and his teacher was open to new ideas and people recommending new lessons. “So I told him I want to learn about artificial intelligence, and I kind of branched off from that.”

At the recommendation of his teacher, Belile took part in a summer program with the MIT Beaver Works Institute, and the spark of his interest in data science and computer science took off.

“The program dealt with self-driving cars,” he says. “I remember the first week, we disassembled one of those Roombas, and we used the parts to make a car, a little toy car.” And we kind of used that to start off our coding and how we wanted to use that to get it to move around. And I feel like that introduced me to a lot of the powers of Python and how it connects with data science.”

Belile was a track star, and appropriately, his data science excitement was also off and running as he neared graduation. He delved into another school project topic that was pertinent to his and the rest of the world’s situation: COVID restrictions.

Belile’s studies led him to learn that “all of the mandates and things happening weren’t based off data sometimes.”

That new project excited Belile enough that he could see himself continuing to apply data science to public health. “It’s just cool seeing how not everything is data-based and how it could be data-based—and how it could help.”

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There is 1 comment on For These BU Students, Data Science Is Their Present and Their Future

Samantha-Marie-Lee Patrine

December 14, 2022 at 1:10 am

I am CO2022, CS, Math and Physics major. These children sound like future world leaders. I would 100% entrust Serena Theobald with my net worth from her pic alone. The stance? Power. Confidence. Strength.

For These BU Students, Data Science Is Their Present and Their Future

They are using data in the worlds of biology, public health, and self-driving cars to explore new career paths

For These BU Students, Data Science Is Their Present and Their Future

They are using data in the worlds of biology, public health, and self-driving cars to explore new career paths

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