REU Site: Big Data Analytics at Oklahoma State University

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This project will support a three-year Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site at Oklahoma State University (OSU). The project is a ten-week summer institute for ten undergraduate students who are rising juniors or seniors in two-year colleges and four-year universities in Oklahoma and neighboring states. During the summer institute, the participants will engage in research in big data analytics; including, data collection, data cleansing, data analysis, data interpretation, and data visualization, under the mentorship and guidance of the Principal Investigator and other faculty mentors. The proposed REU site will impact the training of the 21st century workforce by broadening participation in computing research, exposing minority students to the research process, influencing their career decisions and increasing diversity with-in the field. Contact will be maintained with the participants after the summer institute through a virtual community site; this will encourage community-building within the whole cohort and support the participants' efforts to build their identity as researchers. The participants will also be exposed to research activities in industry through field trips and presentations from external speakers. The targeted institutions for recruitment have a high percentage of underrepresented minority undergraduate students, such as African Americans and Native Americans.This project will support ten students each year as they engage in research in big data analytics. They will learn how to use machine learning algorithms such as neural networks, visualization techniques, such as isometric feature mapping, and statistical techniques such as regression and Gaussian processes. It is expected that participants will not only gain technical skills such as programming, but also develop broad abilities in abstraction and computational thinking. They will be introduced to all aspects of big data analytics in real-world projects, such as collecting and analyzing social media data. The participants will work as a cohort and will be included as co-authors in publications stemming from their work. The students will work in small groups while interacting with other groups and with graduate students, assisting each other to collect, schematize, structure, visualize, and learn from large-scale data sources. The proposed REU site will contribute towards the training of the 21st century workforce and broaden participation in computing research, especially in big data analytics, which is an important and swiftly-growing area for research.