Dr Paola Oliva-Altamirano is an accomplished astrophysicist and data scientist who pivoted her academic career researching the evolution of galaxies to the social sector where she now brings data science for benefit of society. In this episode, we talk with Paola about breaking gender stereotypes in Honduras as she defied tradition to pursue a career in STEM. She speaks about the influence of her early teachers and her father who built her confidence as a mathematician which led her to study physics.
We discuss the role of data science in astrophysics and how Paola has applied her skills to her work at the Innovation Lab at Our Community where she has created a groundbreaking classification model of grant funding in Australia.
We discuss the development of the CLASSIEfier tool which is used extensively by the Not For Profit sector to detect and classify not just grants but other digital documents and help summarise the flow of grant funding and attention to various causes. Paola discusses the challenge of algorithmic bias, and the ways in which prejudicial bias can and has been avoided in the development of CLASSIEfier.
This tool provides insight into the $80 billion in funding from Australia’s public sector grantmakers that use the Smartygrants platform. Until now, funding for grants has not been well understood and the tool sheds light on where the money is going and how it’s being spent.
We talk about the role of Paola’s work in achieving better efficiency through transparency within the many-billion dollar grants sector, in Australia and overseas.
Paola speaks about the joys of learning about the complexities in the community sector and the free tools created by Our Community for all people working in the not for profit sector to build data literacy and to make data-informed decisions.
Resources:
- NFP data science online tutorials ($48, free with discount code) – designed to be a gentle introduction to data science concepts, combined with practical exercises, resources and templates
- NFP Data Capability Framework (free) – easy to read primer on not-for-profit data and how it can be used
- NFP Data Project Guide: (free) – a 15-step guide to scoping and delivering successful data projects (with a consultant on hand to bounce ideas and give advice)
Learn more at www.ourcommunity.org.au or https://smartygrants.com.au/innovation-lab/overview
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