As modelers, we come from a variety of educational backgrounds, including biology, computer science, engineering, mathematics, and statistics. We perform a variety of techniques on a day to day basis, like coding, writing, experiments, mathematics. As a modeler, you might spend a day debugging some code, cleaning some data, doing an experiment, chugging through some math, or waiting for code to finish executing.
Although the usefulness and appreciation of modeling as a field is always increasing, modelers today often experience a few setbacks. We often teach ourselves difficult concepts in an effort to innovate along any of the fields we operate in (coding, math, biology, statistics). We may complete our degrees in a kind of isolation, with little to no local cohort. We may struggle with communicating across disciplines, and may have trouble identifying mentors in every discpline that we want to have in our toolbox. And the sheer number of papers you feel you need to read…
We want this community to serve as an outlet for people operating within the often isolating experience of science, whether in industry or academia. Science has trouble keeping its more diverse members. The already isolating experience of something as niche as modeling may exacerbate already-negative experiences. We hope that this community could mitigate some of these experiences and support any modeler. Whether you need mentorship, companionship, or an empathetic ear, we intend for this community to help serve that purpose.
We are two recently graduated computational biologists. The lack of a visible online community, and the unique challenges faced by modelers in increasingly interdisciplinary (niche) areas has motivated us to start our own community of early career modelers.