REU Site: Broadening Access to Text Analytics for Social Scientists

该项目由社会、行为和经济科学局的本科生研究经验(REU)站点计划资助。它兼具科学和社会效益，集研究和教育于一体。今年夏天的住宿体验为来自不同学术和社会背景以及来自美国一系列学院和大学的本科生提供指导、研究方法培训和数据集。该网站对学生进行计算机方法教育，以分析从互联网和其他来源获得的大量文本数据集。该网站为学生提供了在积极的研究项目中测试他们的新技能的机会。现场活动发生在锡拉丘兹大学信息研究学院，该学院在为对技术及其对工业、教育和其他部门的影响感兴趣的学生提供教育方面已经超过25年。这个REU网站为学生提供的学习活动包括研究方法研讨会、数据伦理研讨会、几个软件应用程序的培训以及职业发展机会。学生使用他们的教师导师提供的数据集提出和回答有影响力的研究问题。学生们在最后一周展示他们自己的研究成果。鼓励每个学生在完成体验后将他们的研究提交给适当的研究会议。来自前几个暑期的学生通过参加一个支持性的在线社区来继续他们的参与，以获得同行和导师的支持。在这个REU网站上，学生通过加入由锡拉丘兹大学教职员工和他们的博士导师进行的积极研究项目来实现他们的学习目标。信息研究学院的教职员工从事人类语言技术、计算社会科学、社交媒体、虚假信息、以人为中心的计算以及各种相关主题的研究。这些研究项目通常提供大量的数据集，REU的学生可以在他们发展编程语言、数据挖掘方法、统计学、语言学和深度学习的技术技能时进行探索。REU网站的一个关键目标是鼓励学生在返回本国机构后在随后的教育活动中保持他们的研究兴趣。该项目有助于美国培养一支有能力的STEM劳动力队伍，因为用计算机分析自然语言文本的能力已经成为许多部门的一项关键任务技能。一些学生可能还会进入研究职业，在那里他们对影响许多人生活的与互联网相关的社会现象有深入的见解。回到自己的机构后，学生们可以展示他们学到的新方法和工具，并激励他人尝试。该网站由国防部保证计划与NSF REU计划合作支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. It has both scientific and societal benefits, and integrates research and education. This summer residential experience provides mentorship, research methods training, and data sets for groups of undergraduates from diverse academic and social backgrounds and from a range of U.S colleges and universities. The site educates students on computerized methods for analyzing large data sets of text obtained from the internet and other sources. The site provides opportunities for students to test their new skills on active research projects. The site activities occur at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies which has excelled for more than 25 years at providing education for students interested in technology and its impacts on industry, education, and other sectors. Learning activities for the students in this REU site include research methods workshops, data ethics seminars, training on several software applications, and professional development opportunities. Students ask and answer impactful research questions using data sets provided by their faculty mentors. Students present their own research results in the final week. Every student is encouraged to submit their research to an appropriate research conference after completion of the experience. Students from prior summers continue their involvement through participation in a supportive online community to obtain peer and mentor support.Students achieve their learning goals in this REU site by affiliating themselves with active research projects being conducted by Syracuse University faculty members and their doctoral mentees. School of Information Studies faculty members conduct research on human language technologies, computational social science, social media, disinformation, human-centered computing, and a variety of related topics. These research projects typically offer voluminous data sets that REU students can explore as they develop their technical skills with programming languages, data mining methods, statistics, linguistics, and deep learning. A key goal of the REU site lies in encouraging students to sustain their research interests in the context of their subsequent educational activities upon return to their home institutions. The project contributes to the development of a capable STEM workforce for the U.S., insofar as the ability to analyze natural language text with computers has become a mission-critical skill in many sectors. Some students may also progress to research careers where they develop insights into internet-related social phenomena that impact many people’s lives. Upon return to their home institutions, students can demonstrate the new methods and tools they have learned and inspire others to try them. This site is supported by the Department of Defense ASSURE Program in partnership with the NSF REU Program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.