REU Site: Experience the Full Data Science Pipeline through Research and Practice

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

Data Science is an emerging interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods to extract insights and knowledge from various types of data whose origin includes scientific experiments, digital processes, sensors, social media, mobile devices, and more. Companies, government, and local agencies are turning to data scientists to mine such data for insights with the goal of improving business operations, benefitting public and social services, advancing scientific discovery, or understanding user behavior. While data science is at the heart of cutting-edge applications and research, the current workforce is ill-equipped to meet the demand, not only in numbers but also in diversity. Such a diversity gap, albeit being a major current challenge that universities and the industry face, also presents a tremendous opportunity: broadening and diversifying the reach of data science research and practice, as it is being taught and advanced at top-tier research institutions such as the University of California Riverside, to a highly talented and currently under-served portion of the student population nationwide. Motivated by the notion that undergraduate research contributes significantly to success in science and engineering for all students, this REU Site is established to offer 10 undergraduate students the full data science pipeline experience through research and practice via the eight-week summer program with optional follow-up research, professional development, and career mentoring activities throughout the year. This REU Site will expose undergraduate students recruited nationally to the full data science pipeline: from data acquisition, data modeling, to real-world applications. The main activities contain the eight-week summer program (boot-camp, research projects, housing and travel, ethics training, poster presentation, social interaction, and mentoring activities) and year-long engagement. The goal of this project is to provide meaningful data science research opportunities to a broader audience, including women, underrepresented minorities, and economically disadvantaged undergraduate students from institutions that do not have major research operations like the University of California Riverside. Students will be recruited primarily from minority serving and Research II universities, institutions without Computer Science or Computing Ph.D. programs, and community colleges. Participating students will engage with research projects including big data management, statistical data modeling, genomics data mining, and social media mining. Finally, the student participants’ research projects, even though they are tailored to fit within the confines of a summer internship, all address cutting-edge problems in data science research and have the potential for advancing the respective data science sub-areas. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.