Curriculum development at the Tetherless World Constellation – the

days after the “Day One” initiative

RDAP

March 22-23, 2012, New Orleans, LA

Peter Fox (RPI and WHOI) pfox@cs.rpi.eduTetherless World Constellation

tw.rpi.edu

Themes

Future Web•Web

Science•Policy•Social

Xinformatics•Data Science

•Semantic eScience

•Data Frameworks

Semantic Foundations•Knowledge Provenance

•Ontology Engineering Environments•Inference, Trust

Hendler

Fox

McGuinness

Multiple depts/schools/programs ~ 35 (Post-doc, Staff, Grad, Ugrad)

Application Themes

Govt. Data•Open

•Linked•Apps

Env. Informatics•Ecosystems

•Sea Ice•Ocean imagery

•Carbon

Health Care/ Life Sciences•Population Science•Translational Med

•Health Records

Hendler/ Erickson

Fox

McGuinness/Luciano

Platforms:Bio-nano tech centerExp. Media and Perf. Arts Ctr.Comp. Ctr. Nano. Innov.

Data Intensive

Also at RPI

• Data Science Research Center and Data Science Education Center

• http://www.rpi.edu/about/inside/issue/v4n17/datacenter.html– Over 35 research faculty, 5 post-docs, ? grad

students

• Data is one of Rensselaer Plans’ five thrusts

• Other key faculty– Fran Berman (VPR)– Jim Myers (Director CCNI)

http://tw.rpi.edu/web/Courses

5

Data Information Knowledge

Context

PresentationOrganization

IntegrationConversation

CreationGathering

Experience

Data Science Xinformatics Semantic eScienceWeb Science

Curriculum

• Web Science and IT – undergrad, and MSc. and PhD. (with science concentrations)

• Environmental Science with Geoinformatics concentration

• Bio, geo, chem, astro, materials - informatics

• GIS for Science

• Master of Science – Data Science (pending)

• Multi-disciplinary science program (2012) PhD in Data and Web Science

Dayz after…

• Science and interdisciplinary from the start!– Not a question of: do we train scientists to be

technical/data people, or do we train technical people to learn the science

– It’s a skill/ course level approach that is needed

• We must teach methodology and principles over technology *

• Data science must be a skill, and natural like using instruments, writing/using codes

• Team/ collaboration aspects are key **• Foundations and theory must be taught ***

Modern informatics enables a new scale-free framework approach