Interested in exploring new data-driven approaches to interdisciplinary challenges? Student applications are now open for this summer’s Data+ research program. The application deadline is February 27, but applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis, so students should apply as soon as possible.

Data+ is a ten-week summer research experience for undergraduates and master’s students. Students join small teams and learn how to marshal, analyze and visualize data, while gaining broad exposure to the field of data science. In 2020 the program will run from May 26 through July 31.

Data+ is offered through the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke and is part of the Bass Connections Information, Society & Culture theme.

Explore the 2020 Data+ Projects

• ABOUT-US: A BOundary Update Tool for Utility Services
• AI in the Investment Office
• American Predatory Lending and the Global Financial Crisis
• Applying Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) to Security Threat Hunting with Duke’s ITSO
• Computational Approaches to the History of Cartography
• Computational Tools to Improve Healthy and Pleasurable Eating in Young Children
• Data Science for Retention of College Women in Tech
• Deep Learning for Rare Energy Infrastructures in Satellite Imagery
• Disease Emergence and Richness in Primates
• Finding Space Junk with the World’s Biggest Telescopes
• For Love of Greed: Tracing the Early History of Consumer Culture
• Forecasting Campus Energy Usage for Improved Energy Management
• Human Activity Recognition using Physiological Data from Wearables
• Linking Urban Land Use to Aquatic Metabolism Regimes
• Mental Health and the Justice System in Durham County
• Network Visualization of Foot Traffic Patterns
• Neural Network-based Self-adjusting Computational Processors
• On Being a Blue Devil: The Changing Profile of the Duke Student Body
• Piloting an Environmental Public Health Tracking Tool for North Carolina
• Predicting Baseball Players’ Athletic Performance Utilizing Baseline Assessments of Vision
• Predicting Blindness in Duke’s Glaucoma Patient Population
• Predictive Churn Models for Duke Season Ticket Holders and Annual Donors
• Predictive Modeling of Mechanical Failures at Sea
• Protecting American Investors? Financial Advice from before the New Deal to the Birth of the Internet  
• Race and Housing in Durham over the Course of the 20th Century
• Taking Electrification on the Road: Exploring the Impact of the Electric Farm Equipment Roadshow
• Uncovering Latinx Southern History
• When Black Stories Go Global: Analyzing the Translation of African-American Literature and Film

How Data+ Works

Participants receive a $5,000 stipend for this full-time research experience, out of which they must arrange their own housing and travel. Participants may not accept employment or take classes during the program; this requirement is strictly enforced and nonnegotiable. The program is open to students at all levels and from all majors. Past students have come from a variety of backgrounds, majors and levels of experience with coding. Through collaboration, all students learn to use data analysis to solve problems across disciplines.

Each team is made up of two to three undergraduates (and occasionally one master’s student) and one to two doctoral student mentors, in addition to a client or sponsor. Teams work alongside each other in a communal environment, learning from each other.

How to Apply

Students can apply for project teams using the Data+ Application Portal. Students may apply to up to three project teams, ranked in order of preference, and must submit the following items to complete their application:

• Cover letter
• Curriculum vitae
• Transcript (unofficial copy is fine)
• One paragraph (per project chosen) about how you can contribute to the project
• Two references (no actual letters, just names and email addresses)
• Anything else required in the project description.

Learn More

• Stop by the Data+ Info Fair on January 17 from 3:00 to 4:00 in Gross Hall’s Energy Hub Atrium.
• Consider other Bass Connections summer programs, such as Story+.
• Mark your calendar for the Bass Connections Fair on January 24. New Bass Connections project teams that will begin in Summer or Fall 2020 will be posted on January 8. Applications will open on January 24 and will be due by February 14 at 5:00 p.m.