Big Data Analytics Emerging Scholar (e-Scholar) Program for Minority Students

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ABSTRACT With the increase of healthcare-related Big Data, such as electronic health records (EHR), social media, wearable devices, genomic data, and other digital records of information pertinent to individual and population health, Big Data science has brought forth revolutionary advancements in many areas of health sciences, including infectious disease research. However, the potential of Big Data in healthcare research has not been fully realized due to challenges in data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation. One such challenge is the nationwide shortage of a workforce with the necessary knowledge, competencies, and skills of Big Data analytics (BDA), especially a workforce with diverse backgrounds such as racial and ethnic minorities. A promising approach to increase the diversity of the BDA workforce in infectious disease areas is to promote BDA research training and education among students from diverse backgrounds in the early stages of their academic training. In response to PAR-21-258, “NIAID Research Education Program Advancing the Careers of a Diverse Research Workforce”, we propose this R25 emerging scholar (R25 e-Scholar) training program for minority undergraduate students to foster their interests and competencies in BDA research in infectious disease areas. As an important stage of the workforce development pipeline, the undergraduate training program for racial and ethnic minority students will contribute to addressing the nationwide shortage of a diverse data science workforce in NIAID-focused areas. The proposed R25 e-Scholar program will recruit 12 racial/ethnic minority undergraduate students annually from three public universities (University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and the College of Charleston) and three Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) (South Carolina State University, Claflin University, and Benedict College) in South Carolina and provide students with interdisciplinary mentoring, comprehensive curriculum-based training, and hands-on research exposure and experience. The program will provide trainees with interdisciplinary mentoring, including team and peer mentoring. Each student will be mentored by at least one faculty member in Big Data or health science, and at least one racial/ethnic minority faculty member will serve as a career- focused role model for the student. Through the mentoring process, students will gain comprehensive research and professional development training, including responsible conduct of research, manuscript writing, and presentations at local or national conferences. The program will offer comprehensive curriculum-based training via a four-week intensive summer institute in areas of BDA, infectious disease, public health research, and professional development. The program will engage trainees in hands-on Big Data research for exposure and experience in Big Data processing, analysis, visualization, and interpretation in the context of infectious disease research. Trainees will participate in ongoing and future NIAID/NIH-funded or intramurally funded Big Data research projects. Upon completion, these students will be inspired and equipped with confidence in pursuing a postgraduate program or career in Big Data-focused infectious disease research. The training program will foster a more diverse research environment at UofSC and across the state and encourage minority undergraduate students to pursue Big Data research in the prevention, treatment, discovery, prediction, and forecasting of HIV, COVID-19, and other infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases.