blog posts

• "Humanities and Arts in the Age of Big Data", taking place October 4-5

  Sep 5, 2018 8:45 am0 views

  The panel conversations on the 5th should be particularly engaging. Two authors of my favorite books in 2018 are panelists: Safiya Noble and Virginia Eubanks will both be speaking. Their respective works Algorithms of Oppression and Automating Inequality, are some of the best works on the systemic problems of big data processing that I have read in the past several years. 

  For more information visit https://publish.illinois.edu/humanitiesartsinageofbigdata/schedule/

• 2018 DATA SCIENCE DAY - 9/27

  Aug 27, 2018 11:15 am0 views

  This event is a celebration of data science from across our campus. Events include sessions focusing on the application of data science in genomics and materials science, the hesitant data scientist, a session on data governance, and a session on community data science. This event is open to all, faculty, staff, students, and the public..

• Breakfast meeting on undergraduate data science education - 9/5

  Aug 27, 2018 11:15 am0 views

  A breakfast on undergraduate data science education on Wednesday September 5 from 8:30 to 10:30, Rm 314, Illini Union. Hear about an initiative for a broadly accessible introductory course on data science as an on-ramp to other educational opportunities on campus. The goal is that every Illinois undergraduate should have the opportunity to have a meaningful exposure to data science. RSVP by 8/29.

• Bringing Cloud Computing to Data Analytics

  Aug 22, 2018 8:30 am0 views

  “Research has shown that evidence-based decision making has greater returns than gut instinct based,” said Business Administration Associate Professor Ramanath Subramanyam, who teaches data analytics courses in the Gies Business MBA program.

• University Library a Partner in Data Curation Network

  Jun 4, 2018 12:30 pm0 views

  The University Library is one of eight partners launching the Data Curation Network. The three-year effort is backed by a $526,438 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Data Curation Network will serve as “a cross-institutional staffing model that seamlessly connects a network of expert data curators to local datasets and to supplement local curation expertise.”

  “Deep curation of datasets is a clear case where no one library will be able to hire and retain staff to cover all disciplines, data types, and file formats,” said Heidi Imker, director of the Research Data Service at Illinois. "This is an incredibly important—and incredibly challenging—effort, and we're thrilled to lend our expertise, learn from others, and contribute to advancing data services in academic libraries."

  Visit the Data Curation Network website at http://datacurationnetwork.org.   

  Read the full news release from the University of Minnesota at https://www.continuum.umn.edu/2018/04/launching-the-data-curation-network/.

• When Excel Isn't Enough - 4/19

  Apr 10, 2018 1:30 pm7 views

  This workshop will discuss the pros and cons of Excel and databases for data storage. Weighing those pros and cons, do you need a database? If so, is a database in the cloud a cost effective solution?

• iDSI Community Engagement Breakfast Invitation

  Apr 4, 2018 8:30 am18 views

  You are invited to join us at the iDSI Community Engagement Working Group Breakfast.

  April 11, 2018

  8:30-10:30am

  Illini Union 210

• U of I Box Now Offers HIPAA

  Apr 2, 2018 8:15 am2 views

  U of I Box is now available for storing protected health information. Individuals who would like to use U of I Box to store Protected Health Information may only do so in a provided Box Health Data Folder (BHDF). A request for a BHDF can be submitted from https://hipaa.uillinois.edu/protecting-phi-with-box-health-data-folders. Individuals are responsible for following set policies and guidance listed in the web page above.

• Apply for the Data Purchasing Program at the University Library

  Mar 29, 2018 10:15 am0 views

  The University Library is soliciting applications from faculty, academic professionals, and graduate students who need to purchase numeric, spatial, or textual data for their research. Through the Data Purchase Program, funds will be awarded for such data purchases, with a maximum award of $5,000. The application deadline for first consideration is May 28, 2018.

  Visit https://www.library.illinois.edu/sc/purchase/ for more details, including a link to the online application.

• Attend the inaugural Industry Data Science Summit

  Mar 26, 2018 11:30 am0 views

  Learn about cutting-edge data science research happening at Illinois. The summit will take place on May 1-2 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and will cover topics such as Data Governance, Data Security, Privacy, and Trust, Data Driven Architecture and Management, Data Analytics and Industry-University of Illinois Collaborations in Data Science. Register with the link above.

• Dark Energy Survey data processed by NCSA now available to scientists everywhere

  Mar 2, 2018 7:30 am0 views

  Researchers around the world can now explore the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) processed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

  Read the full story

• 200,000+ Articles Available for Text and Data Mining

  Jan 10, 2018 3:15 pm0 views

  Text and data-miners rejoice! All of the 200,000+ Public Library of Science (PLOS) articles are open and available for research at https://www.plos.org/text-and-data-mining.

• Research Data Services Annual Report Available

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm0 views

  Research Data Services has recently made its annual report available.

  “The Research Data Service (RDS) provides the Illinois research community with the expertise, tools, and infrastructure necessary to manage and steward research data.”

• Sign up for Data Nudge for Monthly Reminders to Manage Your Research Data

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm0 views

  Want to manage your research data more proactively? Sign up to receive monthly data management reminders that come with quick, easy tips and activities designed by your local Research Data Service.

• Managing Your Research Data

  Jan 10, 2018 2:45 pm0 views

  Research Data Services offers a monthly newsletter to help researchers proactively manage their data. Focuses include organizing data, improving storage and backup security, documenting data structure, and more.

  Subscribe to the newsletter at  https://go.illinois.edu/nudge

• The Social Media Macroscope

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm7 views

  The Social Media Analytics team is moving forward with plans for a cross-campus partnership with Indiana University on the Social Media Macroscope. The Social Media Macroscope will provide researchers with one-stop access to tools to collect, analyze and store social data for research and reproducibility.

• Simplifying HIPAA-Related Processes

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm0 views

  A cross-campus working group collaboratively drafted questions to be used in faculty interviews to assess their sensitive data needs.  The working group also identified opportunities to improve the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process, as it pertains to HIPAA, by populating the form with choices and reducing, if not eliminating, free-form text boxes.  Faculty welcomed the suggestion for simplifying the IRB form.

• Statistical Consulting Service

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm6 views

  Do you need help with statistics in your research?

  Graduate students with statistical expertise will be available for free consultations to help with questions about statistical analysis.  Consultants have expertise in a variety of statistical software, including R, Stata, SPSS and SAS.

  For more information visit https://publish.illinois.edu/statsconsulting/statistical-consulting/

• Presentation: Research Data Services at Cambridge

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm2 views

  The Research Data Service is hosting a visit by Marta Teperek, the current Research Data Facility Manager at the University of Cambridge, from July 13-14. She’ll be presenting on their data services program on Friday, July 14, and all are welcome to attend.

• Who Is Doing Our Data Laundry?

  Jan 10, 2018 2:15 pm0 views

  We are seeing a surge in firms with offers to take institutions' data so that they can reformat it and make it available as dashboards, with trends and models. It is time to ask: Who is doing our data laundry, and why?

  Read the full story