Data Science is a field that has changed much about our world - in areas such as manufacturing, pharmaceutical and medical, business, city planning and even weather forecasting the innovations in data manipulation and insight help improve the process of planning, progress and product development. Ireland is at the forefront of this movement with some of the most leading edge work on the planet happening right on our doorstep.

To celebrate the achievements in this field, the annual DatSci Awards will be held at Dublin's Aviva Stadium on Thursday, 22. September.

The field has been whittled down carefully after extensive and elaborate presentations last month to the list of finalist taking part in a number of categories and aim to recognise emerging talent within the data science community, progressively thinking organisations as well as Data Scientists within Ireland. The highly anticipated awards ceremony hopes to address the potential for Ireland to become the European Data Science Hub.

"Ireland is at the forefront of Data Analytics and it is key that we celebrate all the exciting and potential world changing projects that are happening right here. It is really exciting to see what possibilities the use of data analytics can bring to our health, our food, our medicines and our everyday consumer products. I look forward to seeing Ireland evolve as a European hub for data analytics.”

- Linda Davis, CEO and founder of Next Generation

The list of finalists and categories are listed below:

Data Scientist of the Year (Sponsored by Optum, part of the UnitedHealth Group, Title Sponsor)

• Dave Sheehan, AIB

• Aoife D’Arcy, The Analytics Store

• Maciej Dabroswki, Altocloud

• Vincent Lonij, IBM

Student of the Year (Sponsored by Deutsche Bank)

• Cian Gallagher, Griffith College Dublin

• Sebastien Ruder, NUI Galway

• Mark O’Connell, NUI Maynooth

• Kevin Brosnan, University of Limerick

Team of the Year for Academic Research (Sponsored by Dun & Bradstreet)

• CeADAR

• ICHEC

• Insight Galway

Multinational Company of the Year Award (Sponsored by Accenture Digital)

• Pramerica

• CarTrawler

Indigenous Irish Company of the Year: (Sponsored by Pegasus)

• Eir

• Core Media

• Corvil

Best Start-up of the Year (Sponsored by CarTrawler)

• Connectors Marketplace

• Kinesis Health Technologies

• Orreco

• VIDiRO

• AYLIEN

Tickets are can be purchased via www.eventbrite.ie or by contacting info@datasciawards.ie, all proceeds from the DatSci Awards event will contribute towards a scholarship for a Master’s programme in Data Science/Business Analytics commencing academic year 2017/2018.

The Judging Panel for the awards, pictured) are:

Dermot Casey - Venture Investment Leader, NDRC; National Digital Research Centre

Jennifer Cruise - Head of Data, Core Media

Fionnuala Healy - Startup Development Manager, Trinity College

Bronagh Riordan - Head of Data Science, CarTrawler

Julian Perez Alzueta – Senior Manager of Data Science, Core Media

For more information: www.datsciawards.ie or follow @DatSciAwards