Bill Yoder, Executive Director, presented at the AR NSF EPSCoR Meeting in May.

WE HAVE BEEN fortunate over the last few months to be able to meet and work with a number of Computer Science and Engineering leaders, both at our state’s colleges and universities as well as in corporate IT. The common denominators are: experienced, highly intelligent, motivated, and focused on what they can do for their school or their company, but also on what they can do to benefit Arkansas.

The words I hear most often are collaboration and sharing. With a state population of just over 3 million, we Arkansans have the advantage of being a community with a shared vision and a common purpose. There are issues that unite us, that get us on the same page. The IT workforce can be one of those issues. It will require the participation of all our institutions of higher education, plus our corporations—from the largest to the smallest. But by taking advantage of our inherent willingness to work together and share positive results, we can build upon a 50-year foundation of IT leadership and position Arkansas as the place to be an IT professional in Computer and Data Science—as well as a great place to raise a family.

— Bill Yoder,

Executive Director

Arkansas Center for Data Sciences