In an effort to support and facilitate graduate student research teams, the Data Institute for Societal Change has begun a monthly seed funding program for graduate students.
Through this collaboration, DISC hopes to increase engagement with graduate students and foster collaborative research during the early stages of their careers. DISC plans to award a total of $2,500 per month.
“This is helping us empower collaborative research teams to help tackle societal challenges,” said DISC Managing Director, Yessenia Torres. “We hope to get students excited about collaborative research and build stronger relationships with them.”
The first project chosen to receive funding is “Facilitating Gradient Student Involvement in the CODE Workshop.” The principal investigator Elizabeth Besozzi, a doctoral student with the Oklahoma Biological Survey, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, aims to increase diversity and participation in the STEM field by offering a free series of data analytics courses that are taught and organized by a diverse, interdisciplinary team of graduate students. The team hopes to use the funds to pay course instructors and teaching assistants for their time and expertise devoted to the program and ensure that the CODE Workshop continues to serve underrepresented groups in the data sciences.
Torres said teaching and increasing equity in the data science field is very important to DISC and this project will help further that mission and put their DEI commitment statement into practice.
Teams who receive funds from the monthly graduate student seed funding program will be assigned a DISC mentor and required to provide a progress report every month. After six months, the team must submit a written report detailing the accomplishments of their projects.
For more information on the Graduate Seed Funding Program, click here.
