School of Data Science Professor, Dr. Colby Ford, to Present at TedxUNCCharlotte

Dr. Colby Ford, adjunct professor for UNC Charlotte’s School of Data Science, has been selected to participate in UNC Charlotte’s second annual TedxUNCCharlotte event. Speakers from across campus and throughout the Charlotte community will conduct live talks around the theme of “Thinking Future. Thinking Forward.”

“Presenting a TedX talk has been on my bucket list for awhile,” Ford said. “I didn’t have a great topic in mind for last year’s talk, so when I found out this year’s theme, I jumped at the opportunity.”

Ford’s talk, “New Science Fields and Explaining What You Do to Your Parents When They Think You Work on Robots,” will tackle the issues of why STEM related fields have struggled to become mainstream and why scientific achievements are not as widely celebrated.

“I’m a first generation college graduate,” Ford said. “My parents barely understand how email works, let alone what their son does for a living. As science and technology continue to shape today’s society, I wanted to address why this field is often kept in the dark and those within it are rarely celebrated for their achievements that have literally changed the world as we know it.”

Ford is a three-time alumnus of UNC Charlotte and began his university education at the age of 14. He’s earned an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, a master’s in Data Science, and a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Ford is an AI Consultant and genomics researcher for Bioinformatics and Genmomics, as well as teaches the cloud computing for data analysis graduate course for the School of Data Science.

TedxUNCCharlotte will be held on Friday, March 27th, at the Cone University Center. For more information on TedxUNCCharlotte and to purchase tickets for the event, click here.