From August 28th to August 30th, eighty-two graduate students participated in the second Foundations of Research Computing (FORC) Camp. Through the collaboration of the Graduate School of Arts & Science Master’s College, NYU Data Services (NYU Libraries and IT), and the Office of Teaching Excellence and Innovation, the free training program focused on the development of fundamental computing skills for data visualization, digital mapping, text analysis, and quantitative analysis using tools such as Python, R, Storymaps, and MaxQDA.
This year’s FORC Camp had some exciting additions to the program thanks to a generous donation (is this to be kept anonymous??). Funding for daily lunches meant that, students had an opportunity to discuss their academic interests and connect with peers and instructors in the unstructured setting of a meal. Funding also enabled two external keynote speakers to introduce some of the exciting ways data is collected, shared, and evaluated for research. Princeton’s Meredith Martin discussed the Princeton Prosody Archive and Kasia Chmielinski, the Co-Founder of the Data Nutrition Project, discussed tools and strategies to mitigate bias in artificial intelligence and data use.
Finally, Experienced NYU professors Hilke Schellmann, Patrick J. Burns and Meredith Martin joined the Tea Times to share insights into the ways data skills and analysis were key to their work.
FORC participants were invited to continue to develop their new data science skills with opportunities that included additional Data Services trainings, courses in the Advanced Certificate in Digital Humanities, and NYU Digital Humanities activities.
