Interdisciplinary Health Equity Research (IHER) Center

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Interdisciplinary Health Equity Research (IHER) Center DSU Data Science Research and Education Hub Summary Strengthening the data science research and education capacity at DSU, a Historically- Black, primarily undergraduate institution will promote diversity, foster innovation, facilitate collaboration, and inspire future generations. This project will leverage our RCMI-funded Interdisciplinary Health Equity Research (IHER) Center to support the development of a more inclusive and equitable data science community that leverages the talents and perspectives of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Our project is focused on Objective #2 - the development of infrastructure to support data science research, education, and training. Our project will support newly hired faculty at DSU, and our DNA sequencing core facility with a high performance computing (HPC) system to enable biomedical research applications involving deep learning, neural networks and big data processing. GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) in HPC systems are designed for parallel processing and are highly efficient in performing mathematical computations. They excel at tasks like matrix operations and deep learning algorithms, which are commonly used in data science research. Having a GPU system enables faster computation and training of machine learning models, reducing the time required for experimentation and analysis. The system will also support research with large datasets, such as those found in genomics by speeding up data preprocessing, feature extraction, and model training, making it easier to work with massive datasets efficiently. The Investigator Development Core of our IHER Center will sponsor workshops and training to enhance data- relevant skills and knowledge, engage interest and build confidence in faculty and other researchers. To train students for the novel research that will emerge through PI/student engagement in the DSU Data Science Research and Education Hub, we will link to a joint NSF Research Traineeship Program developed by Drs. Chase Stratton (DSU) and Gail Rosen (Drexel) – “NRT-AI: AI-training in the Delaware Valley for Understanding and Manipulating Biological Systems (AI-DeV4BIO).” The program supports one year Data Science Fellowships for graduate students, and will establish a certificate in data science at DSU that links to an existing program at Drexel, and includes the development of new courses jointly available to biomedical graduate students on both campuses. The certificate program will integrate with students’ graduate curriculum and provide them with the skills and knowledge needed to incorporate data science into their thesis or dissertation projects. Our project will also provide the infrastructure and expertise to operate, manage, and maintain our HPC system High-performance computing systems have specific power and cooling requirements and need high-speed and reliable networking infrastructure. In addition, managing and maintaining an HPC system requires a range of expertise. Our project will ensure that the lab space for the HPC cluster has adequate infrastructure, and we will recruit an HPC System administrator to handle hardware management, network administration, storage management, trouble shooting and problem solving, as well as the documentation and communication tasks needed to keep our HPC cluster operating.