Mission Statement: ConCode

 

The mission of this initiative is to form a community that fosters learning and collaboration for people at all stages of their education in data science. The emphasis in this group will be to evaluate the ways in which data gathering and processing can best assist the needs related to cultural heritage preservation and research. 

The initiative was created based on a growing need in the field to efficiently deal with large and complicated datasets. This has resulted in an increased interest in coding, data analysis, statistics, machine learning, and visualization. Examples of areas within the conservation field that have gradually started integrating coding and automated processing into their workflow are:

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• Preventive conservation (e.g. temperature, relative humidity, pests, light levels, pollutants, vibration,  incident reports)

• Conservation science (e.g. instrumental analysis, experimental data)

• Building science (e.g. structural health monitoring, moisture levels, solar gain, infrared, salt levels, occupation)

• Imaging (e.g. 3D modeling, X-ray, IR photography, image recognition)

• Registration and archives (e.g. data mutation, automated data imports, image recognition)

 

In order to coordinate and support efforts in the field, this platform aims to:

• Promote active research

• Create a network for people to discuss sporadic ideas and long-term visions

• Be a primary resource for practical Q&A

• Encourage networking across disciplines 

 

We recognize the value in working with experts from varied fields and we promote the participation of anyone interested in this scope of data science. In order to facilitate this, ConCode has a Slack channel and organizes informal monthly meetings that can focus on learning, presentation of research, assistance to coding problems, and more.