2020-2021 Research Data Services Annual Report
The Research Data Services team within Northwestern IT Research Computing Services supports Northwestern researchers with data science, data visualization, and computer programming training, consultations, and collaborative support.
This report summarizes our activities during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Training Services
We provide training on data science, programming, and visualization skills for researchers across Northwestern. Virtual workshops in 2020-2021 allowed us to continue to support researchers working remotely during the pandemic and led to an expansion of the number of researchers able to participate in training.
In addition to workshops taught by Research Computing Services staff and student consultants, 362 different researchers from over 50 departments were able to learn data science skills with the online Dataquest platform.
Consultations
We support researchers through one-on-one research consultations and through small groups that meet quarterly as a part of our Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) Working Groups program.
Key Projects
Text Analysis for Medical Education
Continued supporting the Feinberg School of Medicine Augusta Weber Office of Medical Education on a Stemmler Fundsupported project to incorporate natural language processing methods in the student assessment process.
Identifying Family Trees for Medical Research*
Developed code to identify familial relationships in electronic medical records with the Northwestern Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse and Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM).
Tools for Teaching Materials Science
Created interactive data markup and visualization tools that allow researchers from the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) to teach workshops and courses. Also developed an interactive visualization that allows students to view and manipulate molecules in 3D.
Astrophysics Visualizations
Supported Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and the LIGO Collaboration in visualizing data on gravitational waves, black holes, neutron stars, dark matter, and more. Take a look: here, here, here, and here.
Portrait of Many Artists
Collaborated with Larissa Buchholz on data visualizations to support her research on the international art market.
Data Science and Programming Workshop Design
Developed a template and process for teaching effective programming and data science tutorials for researchers virtually that incorporates best practices learned from teaching workshops for Northwestern researchers. Trained both Northwestern students and research computing and data colleagues from across the country on the template and process.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Metrics*
Analyzed departmental survey data on personal identity and experiences to aid the Materials Science and Engineering Department in their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts.
Research Computing and Data Professionals National Census
Leading the first quantitative study of the composition and experiences of the research computing and data workforce in the United States in collaboration with the Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC).
* Student consultants contributed to these projects
External Impact
Research Data Services staff contributed to the national research computing and data community in multiple ways. These contributions help staff stay up to date on new technologies and service trends, form collaborations with colleagues at other institutions, and establish Northwestern as a leader in the field. Contributions include:
- US Research Software Engineer Association (US-RSE) Steering Committee
- US-RSE Workshop Presentations
- Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC) Professionalization Working Group Member
- CaRCC Researcher-Facing Network Presentations
- Practices and Experiences in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC21) Reviewer
- PEARC21 Tutorial, Panel, and Birds of a Feather
- NSF-Sponsored Cyberinfrastructure Workforce Development Workshop 2020 Participant
- EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Reviewer
- Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) Reviewer
- Summer Institute In Computational Social Science (SICSS) – Chicago Presenter
- WiDS Chicago Datathon Team Mentors
Team Members
Staff
- Christina Maimone, Research Data Services Lead
- Colby Witherup Wood, Senior Data Scientist
- Aaron Geller, Senior Data Visualization Specialist (1/6 FTE in FY21)
Student Consultants
- Andre Archer, Engineering Sciences and Applied Math
- Haley Carter, Plant Biology and Conservation
- Rahul Devathu, Neuroscience and Data Science
- Amanda d’Urso, Political Science
- Diego Gomez-Zara, Technology and Social Behavior
- Alex McFarland, Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences (IBiS)
- Antonio Nanni, Sociology
- Carrie Stallings, Sociology
- Dan Turner, Linguistics