©2026 Business Next Media Corp. All Rights Reserved. No.102, Guangfu S. Rd., Da'an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan
A meetup connect data scientists between Silicon Valley and Taiwan
The idea of building a community popped up in former LinkedIn director Kuan Chi Yi’s head a few years ago. He soon gathered a group of Taiwanese in Silicon Valley to start the adventure, planning on flourishing the interaction between Taiwan and Silicon Valley data scientists. Till now, the Silicon Valley-Taiwan community is booming with more than 17,000 members so far, and a steady flow of meetups, publications, conferences, and mentorship programs going on.
You may wonder how they accumulate such energy. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
A giant community built on ZERO funding
Initially being launched like a club in 2018, a group of Taiwanese in San Francisco host regular meetups for sharing information about data science, a trending and expanding concept. Gradually, the community seeks to bring data science to home —— Taiwan.
They created a Facebook community, for sharing information and hosting online meetups. Surprisingly, the idea of data science hits the market need. The number of members climbed to 10,000 in a short period of time. That’s when Kuan Chi-Yi, founder of the Data Science association and former LinkedIn director , and other colleagues started to consider establishing an association.
“The most incredible thing about this large community we have created,” said Kuan Chi-Yi, “is that we run on zero funding, only with buy-in from people, who are devoted and ready to contribute for the community voluntarily.”
Can you imagine: a series of events and programs are rolled out by enthusiasts who contribute to improve Taiwan’s data science voluntarily. Online meetups and offline meetups are hosted respectively twice a month and once a season, inviting over 1,000 people to join simultaneously to the data science feasts.
The association hosted “2021 Women in Data Science Taipei Conference”, which invited Digital Minister of Taiwan Audrey Tang to join the discussion. Not to mention that they had also held speeches and conferences on various platforms, and the experiences they shared on Medium reached nearly 5,000 reads within three months. The burgeoning pattern of this community is like that of data science itself.
Never been a better time to be a data scientist
In today’s digital era, data science jobs are in desperate demand. Data science, like the tentacles of octopus, is spanning various industries and providing promising jobs. There’s never been a better time to enter the field and work as a data scientist, according to Analytics Insights.
Take the association Data Science Meetup as an example. The founder of meetup, Kuan Chi-Yi, is a data science and engineering executive with more than 20 years of extensive experience on driving business value via scientific use of data.
“The community allows us to take a glimpse of Taiwanese talents and the connections we build strengthen our skills the other way round,” said Nina Tseng, the supervisor of the association, who is also an experienced manager specializing in marketing analytics.
“Data science is becoming the DNA of a company, as the analytics work takes a key role in every department for optimizing management,” said Kuan. Talents like computer scientists, statisticians, economists, operation researchers, and data engineers are in demand in the field of data science.
The association aims to create more job opportunities for data scientists, and also to improve the competitiveness of data science in Taiwan, equipping more Taiwanese the skill and knowledge. Not only data scientists, entrepreneurs, students, but also people who are interested in data science are joining this community.
“None of us specializes in social media management.” Kuan admitted, “However, we did build this valuable community out of nothing.”
A further boost to the community
To help more Taiwanese data scientists on the track, the association has launched a series of events, including meetups and mentorship programs. From online meetups to offline, the association has held 42 data science events with their members, in Silicon Valley or Taiwan. “It’s like raising a kid, little by little. And now more people are getting to know us!” said Jason Wang, who is responsible for hosting these meetings. Wendy Hsu, as the director of the organization, said that she benefited from the sharing and found a new job as a product manager involving AI.
What’s more, a largest ever mentorship program led by Eric Kuo and Nina Tseng, has been launched in 2021, matching 52 mentors with 442 mentees to touch on different aspects of data science.
The mentors would have regular meetings with mentees, to engage in data science communication in depth. Moreover, the connections linked by the programs are directing both parties towards more opportunities and potentials economically and intellectually. “Many participants love the program and have been looking forward to the next,” said Eric Kuo. The association also considers having the programs twice a year, to spark more thinking and collaborations.
From a club to an association, Data Science Meetup has transformed and now faces structural adjustments, which includes fund raising in the near future. The funding will fuel the operation team, and also be used to set up a scholarship to encourage more Taiwanese data scientists. They hope to make use of the accumulated strengths to further boost the community to prosper. What remains still is the devotion of these data scientists.
©2026 Business Next Media Corp. All Rights Reserved. No.102, Guangfu S. Rd., Da'an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan