DSI Receives NSF Grant to Establish a Credential in Data Science for STEM Doctoral Students
Coinciding with the launch of the Data Science PhD program this autumn quarter, the Data Science Institute is pleased to announce it is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Innovations of Graduate Education (IGE) grant to support a five year study of a new multi-disciplinary university-wide project titled “Transforming Graduate STEM Education: A Study of a Data Science and AI Credential for STEM Doctoral Students.” This grant will help establish a data science credential that will enable STEM doctoral students to apply data science (DS) and artificial intelligence (AI) in their fields. STEM doctoral students participating in the credential program will learn how to use data and AI accurately and responsibly, understand its broader impacts on social systems, make and critique data-backed arguments, and become fluent in the latest computation tools.
“The methods and tools of data science and AI are crucial for all scientific domains, and algorithms and data will support future advances in all disciplines by providing researchers with means to explore new and more complex questions of importance to science and society. As data science emerges as its own discipline, it is a critical time to train the next generation of STEM researchers how to integrate the power of data and algorithms into their work.” said DSI Faculty Co-Director Dan Nicolae, IGE Co-Principal Investigator and Elaine M. and Samuel D. Kersten, Jr. Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Statistics, Human Genetics, Medicine, and the College.
This program will target doctoral students in STEM disciplines outside of data science such as astrophysics, geophysical sciences, genetics, engineering, and neuroscience during their 2nd or 3rd year of study. With support from their advisors, students will enroll in three customized core courses during which they will consider ways to apply DS and AI concepts in their disciplines. Students will complete a fourth culminating course residing in their home department and focus on applying DS/AI in their own research. The program will also provide an opportunity for students to participate in co-curricular activities supporting their professional growth.
The study will collect data from graduate students during and after their credential experience. Little if any research has been done on formal mechanisms for creating integrative opportunities between DS/AI and other STEM disciplines nor on the role that a credential from another discipline can play in STEM graduate students’ career paths and research,” emphasized Jeanne Century, Co-Principal Investigator and Senior Research Fellow at DSI. The research activities will use a mixed methods design to focus on the role that participation in the credential program plays in shifting disciplinary perspectives and graduate students’ job search and career direction. The PIs will also explore the institutional and systemic processes needed to establish and implement an interdisciplinary credential and the role that credential plays in shifting institutional culture.