The Graduate College’s Focal Point initiative funds projects that bring faculty and graduate students together across departments to catalyze interdisciplinary research and address areas of critical need. The Data Science Across Disciplines Focal Point project seeks to support Illinois graduate students in developing a passion for using data to address problems in their fields and the skills to accomplish this analysis.

To this end, we are holding a year-long introductory data training course targeted at graduate students with no prior programming experience. Students will develop basic skills and familiarity with Python, MatLab and Unix in addition to advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel. In the spring, students will apply these skills to a data set of interest to them and will present their work in a culminating poster session (time and location TBA).

We would like to make a specific point to welcome both students who may have previously felt marginalized in or have been worried about being marginalized from more traditional programming environments due to sex, gender expression, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, socioeconomic background or any other demographic factors and students from fields where it is less typical to pursue advanced computational skills, such as the social sciences and humanities. We are committed to building a tolerant and supportive classroom environment where we work together to eliminate microaggression and exclusionary or judgmental language so that everyone can have a positive experience learning a new set of skills, as described in our Code of Conduct.

Additionally, we will host seminars throughout the year in which Illinois researchers across departments will discuss the ways they use large data sets to approach interesting questions in their own fields. These seminars are open to the public and will be announced  on this website and in GradLinks the week prior.