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IT Service Status
IT Service Status

2021-2022 Research Data Services Annual Report

The Research Data Services team within Northwestern IT Research Computing Services supports Northwestern researchers in working with their data.  There are two main areas of support:

  • Data science and visualization: data science, data visualization, and computer programming training, consultations, and collaborative support.
  • Data management: support for the research data lifecycle, especially data storage and workflow solutions.

This report summarizes our activities during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Training Services

We provide training on data science, programming, and visualization skills for researchers across Northwestern. We continued virtual workshops in 2021-2022 and began recording many of them to provide increased flexibility for attendees.

In addition to workshops taught by Research Computing Services staff and student consultants, 651 different researchers from over 70 departments from every Northwestern school were able to learn data science skills with the online Dataquest platform.  We also published 8 new learning guides/tutorials, as well as new self-study workshop materials.

3200
Workshop Attendees
1750
Distinct Researchers Registered from over 120 Departments
112
Hours of Workshops

 Bar graph workshop estimated attendance

Bar graph hours of training

Consultations

We support researchers through one-on-one research consultations and through small groups that meet quarterly as a part of our Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) Working Groups program. With additional staff coming onboard in 2022, we expanded capacity to support researchers’ data management needs through consultations. Researchers from all Northwestern schools made use of our consultation services.

209
Data Science and Visualization Consultations
49
Data Management Consultations
54
BYOD Working Group Participants

 

Bar graph data science and visualization consultations

Bar graph data management consultations

Research Collaboration Highlights

This year we continued several research collaborations in addition to starting new ones.  Some project highlights are below.  Student consultants contributed to projects with a *.

LIGO Mass Plot

Updated an interactive visualization of gravitational wave data for Vicky Kalogera and the LIGO Collaboration.  Created visualizations used in press releases and textbooks.

Linkage Analysis Tool

Created an interactive data exploration tool for Claudia Haase and the Life-Span Development Lab to visualize correlations of emotional and physiological measurements across pairs of people interacting during experiments.

Pediatric Organ Dysfunction

Designed interactive data visualizations for L. Nelson Sanchez-Pinto to support ongoing research and upcoming publications on pediatric organ dysfunction.

Healthcare Utilization by MS Patients*

Exploring patterns of use of the healthcare system by patients with multiple sclerosis with Dominique Kinnett-Hopkins using electronic health record data from CAPriCORN and the Northwestern EDW.

The Global Rules of Art

Completed a collaboration with Larissa Buchholz on 50+ data visualizations for her forthcoming book on the international art market.

Text Analysis for Medical Education

Continued supporting the Feinberg School of Medicine Augusta Weber Office of Medical Education on a Stemmler Fundsupported project to incorporate natural language processing methods in the student assessment process.

Identifying Family Trees for Medical Research*

Completed the development of code to identify familial relationships in electronic medical records with the Northwestern Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse and Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM).

Paper Conservation Analysis*

Analyzed factors affecting the preservation of paper in collaboration with the Library’s Conservation Resident.

Illinois Prison Records Data Collection*

Helped the Health Disparities & Public Policy Program collect data from prison records.

Firefly

Continued development of Firefly, an interactive viewer for particle-based data, with Alex Gurvich and Claude-André Faucher-Giguère.

Materials Design Tool

Completed development of interactive data markup and visualization tools that allow researchers from the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) to teach workshops and courses.

Service Improvements

  • The data management team worked with colleagues in Northwestern IT Cyberinfrastructure to refresh the Research Data Storage Service hardware, expand the system capacity, and update accounting processes.
  • The data management team deployed a new Globus endpoint for OneDrive/Sharepoint to support research data transfers and workflows.

External Impact

Research Data Services staff contributed to the national research computing and data community in multiple ways. These contributions help staff stay up to date on new technologies and service trends, form collaborations with colleagues at other institutions, and establish Northwestern as a leader in the field. Contributions include:

Team Members

Staff

  • Christina Maimone, Manager Research Data Services
  • Aaron Geller, Senior Data Visualization Specialist
  • Tobin Magle, Lead Data Management Specialist
  • Brian Roland, Data Management Specialist
  • Colby Witherup Wood, Senior Data Scientist

Data Science Student Consultants

  • Haley Carter, Plant Biology and Conservation
  • Rahul Devathu, Neuroscience and Data Science
  • Amanda d’Urso, Political Science
  • Xi Cindy Kang, Computer Science
  • Julianne Murphy, Health Sciences Integrated Program
  • Julie Anh Nguyen, Applied Math
  • Jose Sotelo, Cognitive Psychology
  • Carrie Stallings, Sociology
  • Dan Turner, Linguistics

Data Management Summer Interns

  • Nasir Simms
  • Daniel Turner