Concord Academy has an abundance of clubs; among them is Big Data Club, a club that focuses on data science. This year, Big Data is co-headed by Averie Lee ’26, Vee Sirikantraporn ’26, and Ashley Yu ’26. As the club’s faculty advisor, math teacher George Larivee attends all weekly club meetings on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in LABS B11.
“If you're interested in learning more about the data science field, come give Big Data Club a try,” Vee encouraged. Big Data is a great opportunity for those who are new to data science as well, as coheads will teach lessons about how to use Excel and other data analysis programs.
Outside of learning the technical bits of data science, the club will also undertake two main projects. One large project the club is looking forward to this year is analyzing CA’s energy usage data. Led by all three co-heads, Big Data will work together with the environmental representatives to compare the various projects the environmental representatives have completed and measure the amount of energy efficiency the school is gaining from them. For example, the environmental representatives replaced the SHAC lights with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Big Data will compare how much money has been saved after changing to LED lights by looking at utility bills.
Some other examples of past and present projects include a project that aims to compare the finances and endowments of different schools led by Vee, the analysis of CA’s boys varsity basketball team data led by Zach Miller ’24, and the RNA-sequencing analysis led by Irene Jiang ’24. In general, Big Data’s main objectives are to help clean CA’s data and to start student-led projects, many of which are also related to the school. Such initiatives have a very real impact on our immediate CA community, whether through analyzing energy efficiency or improving the play of CA’s basketball team.