NRT-IGE: Augmenting, Piloting, and Scaling Computational Notebooks to Train New Graduate Researchers in Data-Centric Programming

每一个研究领域都面临着数据洪流的到来，其速度、数量和种类都在不断增加。空前的数据规模、加速的数据积累速度和逐渐消失的学科界限带来了令人兴奋的研究和发展机会，但也对传统的研究生教育提出了挑战。几乎每个学科的核心挑战都是确保学生拥有数据密集型研究所需的计算技能，以及竞争激烈和快速发展的就业市场所必需的计算技能。在生物、物理和社会科学领域，应对这一挑战的一种常见方法是创建训练营，这是针对新研究生的介绍性短期课程。加州大学圣地亚哥分校研究生教育创新（IGE）项目的国家科学基金会研究培训（NRT）奖将扩展训练营方法，同时通过增强Jupyter Notebook（一种基于网络的笔记本，具有新颖的在线设施，可为广泛学科的研究生提供以数据为中心的编程培训），利用不断增长的计算机笔记本创建运动。这有可能提高以数据为中心的编程培训研究生的效率，并通过网络广泛提供新的教学设施来扩大其影响。基于开源的Jupyter Notebook软件和广泛部署的教育工具，研究人员开发了支持辅导（Python Tutor）、反馈（PeerStudio）、讨论（Talkabout）和活动捕捉（ChronoViz）的工具，该项目将增强Jupyter Notebook，以帮助培训以数据为中心的编程的新研究生。该项目将在训练营和正在进行的课程中迭代地设计、试验和评估增强的笔记本和相关的新配套课程，以验证该方法，并使最终的系统适合特定的学科要求，可以在训练营、研究生班和在线课程中广泛共享、发展和扩展。此外，项目成员将参加加州大学圣地亚哥分校STARS（学术研究成功暑期培训）外展计划，并涉及来自校园内创新的普鲁斯学校和该地区其他高中的高中生。为了将影响扩展到出版、教育和本地推广之外，项目成员将与project Jupyter团队密切合作，形成一个社区，进一步发展和发展这种方法，以培训学生以数据为中心的编程，并帮助实现增加数据共享和分析的承诺，以促进开放的科学合作和可复制的科学。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、新的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训模式。研究生教育创新轨道专门用于试点，测试和评估新颖，创新和潜在的变革性研究生教育方法。

Every research area is confronting torrents of data arriving with increasing velocity, volume, and variety. The unprecedented scales of data, the accelerating pace of its accumulation, and disappearing disciplinary boundaries bring exciting research and development opportunities but also challenge traditional graduate education. A central challenge for virtually every discipline is ensuring students have the computational skills needed for increasingly data-intensive research and necessary for a competitive and rapidly evolving job market. Across the biological, physical, and social sciences, one common approach to addressing this challenge is to create bootcamps, which are introductory short courses for new graduate students. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award in the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track to the University of California - San Diego will expand on the bootcamp approach and simultaneously exploit the growing movement for the creation of computational notebooks by augmenting Jupyter Notebook, a web-based notebook with novel online facilities for data-centric programming training for graduate students in a wide range of disciplines. This has the potential to improve the efficacy of training graduate students in data-centric programming and expand its impact by making new instructional facilities widely available via the web.Building on open-source Jupyter Notebook software and widely deployed educational tools the investigators have developed to support tutoring (Python Tutor), feedback (PeerStudio), discussion (Talkabout), and activity capture (ChronoViz), the project will augment Jupyter Notebook to assist in training new graduate students in data-centric programming. This project will iteratively design, pilot, and evaluate the augmented notebooks and associated new companion curricula in bootcamps and ongoing classes to validate the approach, and make the resulting system, tailored to specific discipline requirements, available online to be widely shared, evolved, and extended in bootcamps, graduate classes, and online courses. In addition, project members will participate in the UC San Diego STARS (Summer Training for Academic Research Success) outreach program and involve high school students from the innovative Preuss School on campus and other high schools in the area. To extend impact beyond publication, education, and local outreach, project members will work closely with the Project Jupyter team to form a community to further develop and evolve this approach for training students in data-centric programming and help fulfill the promise that increased sharing of data and analyses holds for advancing open scientific collaboration and reproducible science.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.