Winning education proposals in Integrative Data Science Initiative announced by Provost's Office

Nine proposals have been selected for funding in the Education Ecosystem sector of Purdue's Integrative Data Science Initiative. The selections, as announced by the Office of the Provost, will receive support for the work of 37 faculty working together across 22 departments, 10 colleges and the Data Mine living learning community.

The IDSI education request for proposals received 42 proposals, which were reviewed against their contribution to meeting the goals that emerged from the forums and working groups in 2017: “Creating a data science education ecosystem,” “Embedding data science into domain curricula” and establishing an “Ecosystem of data fluency throughout campus.”

Priority was given to proposals that worked across departments and/or colleges to best leverage expertise and resources. Also, the potential to reach a large number of students either in initial implementation or as an institutional model was a key factor. 

The winning proposals, which together contribute to a networked ecosystem, and principal investigators:

* Creation of a Molecular Microbiome Analysis Course. Timothy Johnson, Cindy Nakatsu, Steve Lindemann, Laramy Enders, Mohit Verma, Dianne Little, Yava Jones-Hall, Jennifer Kozioal, Matt Olson (College of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Science, College of Engineering)

* Foundations of the Data Mind: An Interlocking Modules Approach. Milind Kulkarini, Michael Fosmire, Dan Kelly, Wei Zakharov, Sarah Huber, Taylor Davis (College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts, Libraries)

* Development of a Model for Incorporation of Data Science Learning Into a Non-majors Course to Promote Data Science. John Burgess, Michele Forman, Ann Bessenbacher (College of Health and Human Sciences, College of Education)

* Building Data Literacy Skills Across Purdue's Campus. Jennifer Bay, Samantha Blackmon, Michael Salvo, Patricia Sullivan (College of Liberal Arts)

* Data Science Building Blocks: From Ethics to Exploration. Rosalee Clawson, Paul Griffin, Jianxi Su, Christopher Yeomans, Lingsong Zhang (College of Engineering, College of Science, College of Liberal Arts)

* Engaging Data in the Humanities. Matthew Hannah, Venetria Patton (Libraries, College of Liberal Arts)

* Analyzing Large Data Sets to Search for Rare Dark Matter Events. Rafael Lang, Mark Ward (College of Science, Data Mine)

* Autonomous Science Summer Short Course. Garth J. Simpson, Charlie Bouman, Greg Buzzard, Stanley Chan (College of Science, College of Engineering)

* Distinguishing Good and Bad Science Through Data Analysis: A Multidisciplinary Active Learning Course for Junior/Senior Undergraduates. Alan M. Friedman, Andrew Hirsch, Bruce Craig (College of Science)

Writer: Sarah Anderson, andersons@purdue.edu, 765-494-1386
Source:  Jenna Rickus, rickus@purdue.edu, 765-494-0615