Outcomes

Archived Datasets from the Program

Over the course of this program, we have received datasets from a variety of stakeholders, including national laboratories, utilities, consulting companies, and manufacturers, all with an interest in water and wastewater treatment. With each one's permission, we have archived these datasets on a public data repository. Twenty datasets were used directly for the summer undergraduate research program projects, and their associated meta-data includes variable descriptions, process diagrams, example R code to create simple figures from the data, and motivating questions that could be asked of the data. An additional nine datasets include both the data and code for a peer-reviewed paper associated with Professor Amanda S. Hering's research group, and three of the entries in this database include educational data science material developed during this program.

Archived Data

We have also developed two teaching vignettes that provide two examples of analyses and exercises designed to help educators integrate the real-world datasets from this database into their curriculum. The exercises can be adapted for both programming and non-programming contexts, allowing educators to use them in exams, assignments, or classroom activities, depending on the students' computer access. For one of the datasets, we provide an example of an interactive Shiny app created by students for visualizing and modeling data. These materials provide an illustration of how to develop classroom material that will engage students with real-world data and hone their skills in data cleaning, statistical modeling, and hypothesis testing. At the time of publication, all code runs, but we provide no guarantees on future versions of R or packages used in these materials.

Data Vignettes

Summer Undergraduate Research Program

In the summers of 2020, 2021, and 2022, small teams of students who participated in the Data Science Summer Research Fellows program worked on a data science project with data and a problem provided from one of our stakeholder partners. At the end of the summer, the students wrote a 4-page technical brief summarizing their work and conclusions, and they gave a presentation of their work as well. The technical briefs and presentations are provided here for reference. We wish to thank each of our stakeholders for partnering with us to provide this incredibly unique educational experience to students early in their academic career. We have had fantastic groups of students, who were able to participate in solving an authentic data science problem. The students in the 2021 summer program gave the program a 9.5/10 in terms of its overall educational value. The students in the 2022 summer program scored the experience a 9.7/10.

In the summer of 2023, we were able to support five advanced students to work individually with one of our stakeholder partners on a stakeholder's data-centric problem.

Outcomes

Archived Datasets from the Program

Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Summer 2023 Final Presentations

Summer 2022 Written Reports

Summer 2022 Final Presentations

Summer 2021 Written Reports

Summer 2021 Final Presentations

Summer 2020 Written Reports

Summer 2020 Final Presentations