Data 4 God

Data4God@gmail.com

My name is Aric. I am a born again Christian and follower of Jesus Christ. I am also an academic and data science professional. I created Data4God to connect my faith (the most important part of my life) to my career.

Here I will have videos talking about connecting a career in data science and analytics to faith as well as interview other data science professionals who are believers in Christ. I also want to be a bridge for other believers in the data science field to the rest of the world.

I hope you enjoy and come with me on this journey!

My Story

This is a brief piece of my story. For more about me please see my personal website!

Faith

I didn't come from a religious family upbringing. I come from a loving family where my mom and dad provided all I could ever need and so much more. I have an amazing younger brother who I tried to provide for and take care of much like my parents did for me. One of the blessings of my childhood was that my parents taught me to search for the truth and to not let the world influence my path.

So I searched and explored in my youth because I knew there was something missing. That led me all the way to college where I met a waitress who would eventually become my wife. Early on when we were dating she brought me to her church. I started getting involved, meeting new people, and finding out more about this person named Jesus. Now I was a good student, so I researched Him and studied more and more about Him. I thought I had finally found what was missing in my life. That is until I went on a mission trip to Charlotte, NC with the youth as a chaperone.

On that mission trip, someone asked me to tell them about my personal relationship with Jesus. For the first time I can remember I was SILENT. This is rather unusual! I was confused. Relationship? I knew of Jesus, but I didn't know Jesus. I did everything I could around the church and was involved because I thought there was something I could do, but I realized that night I could never be good enough to get into heaven on my own. For the first time I earnestly prayed for Jesus to come into my life; to take away the punishment for my disobedience. We were then asked to go to our group leaders one at a time. The youth pastor was the first person I told as I gave him a hug. Then I found my wife in the crowd and hugged her.

Family

The older I get, the more I appreciate the blessings of my wife and children in my life. In that vein, I try to serve others in a variety of activities.

My wife and I help lead a small group ministry at our church. We also have opened up our home to college students at the church to come by for a meal, talk about the Bible, or just catch up.

We have also had the pleasure of traveling around the state and overseas to help out people in need. From collecting food for impoverished people in Charlotte, NC through Dare to Share to building roads at an orphanage in Jamaica through the Caribbean Christian Center for the Deaf, I have had the pleasure of serving others in a variety of places. I feel so fortunate through these opportunities as I learn so much from the people I get a chance to meet!

Faculty

I was blessed to be given an opportunity to teach an undergraduate class while getting my doctorate degree at NC State. That ignited a passion for teaching in me that still burns strongly today.

God has given me an opportunity to be a light for Him at my university. It is a great space for ministry as there are always curious minds looking to learn. Too often I have seen people assume that since I am in a technical field such as data science, that I must not be a believer in Christ. I look to try and change that mentality with my life.

Christianity and Data Science Videos

This section contains videos connecting my faith to the professional of data science.

Welcome

Bridging the Data Science Gap

This series talks about how professionals in data science can best work with leadership at Christian organizations to bridge the gap between company vision and measuring impact. This comes from my experience working with Christian organizations and churches trying to do this very thing!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

VisionFund International Case Study

I have been blessed to help grow economic stability of families in underdeveloped countries. Check out this case study on some of the work that we did!

Interviews

This section contains interviews I have with other Christian data scientists in the profession as well as analysts and leadership from Christian organizations on how they use data to help further the kingdom!

Data Science at Christian Organizations

Organizations include: Atlanta Mission, Samaritan's Purse, VisionFund International, Biola University, Compassion International, SIL International

Christian Data Scientists

Christians at Organizations Including: SmarterHQ, UNC Healthcare, Wake Tech Community College, Biola University, Veterans in Data Science

Projects

VisionFund International

Credit Score Modeling

Trying to determine who is credit worthy to give a loan is not an easy decision, especially for banks in developing countries. I have helped banks collect and analyze data to better assist them in developing more statistical methods to aiding in the loan decision.

Model & Process Evaluation

Banks from around the world have different processes and regulations on how they handle credit decisions. I have helped evaluate current processes and models in place to help provide guidance and evaluate the successes of the models.

Subject Matter Expert

I have helped recommend strategies and processes for collecting data, which data is a primary focus to collect, and how to best move into a more analytically driven credit process.

IFBank

Subject Matter Expert

I have helped recommend strategies and processes for moving into a more analytically driven risk management approach for developing an international bank.

Local Church

Survey Analysis

Surveys are a great way to understand the people in your congregation. I have helped build and evaluate surveys for a church trying to understand growth plans for their congregation.