Looking for opportunities to meaningfully contribute to real data science (DS) projects? Vanderbilt's Data Science Institute (DSI) has exciting new opportunities for undergraduates, graduate and researchers interest in working on project teams with the guidance of a staff data scientist to learn technical skills, project management, and best practices – all while creating new solutions!
Pre-Registration Now Open!
Important Dates:
- Project List Release: Tuesday, December 17th
- Official Application Period: December 17th - January 3rd
How It Works
- Fill out the pre-registration form to express your interest (link below)
- Receive the official project list and application form via email on December 17th
- Review available projects and submit your formal application
Who can apply?
Spring 2024 will feature an innovative set of engagements across various fields. Students with technical expertise and training are preferred for team leads and code contributors, including through DS Minor courses, DSI workshops and other discipline-specific courses. Non-technical participants are also welcomed.
Roles include:
- Project Team Lead: Technical or non-technical participant who organizes the activities of the team as a project manager
- Domain Lead: Technical or non-technical participant who has expertise about the domain
- Technical Team Lead: The lead code contributor – a participant strong in programming in Python and able to provide feedback and coding instruction for other coders
- Code Contributor: A participant who has experience coding in Python or other languages, but feels confident about their ability to currently write or transition to writing Python code
- UI/UX Designer: A technical or non-technical participant who enjoys designing user interfaces
What experience do I need?
Some roles will require strong domain knowledge or programming skills. Coders should be familiar with skills relevant to the project, including R or Python, git, deep learning, machine learning, and/or visualization. Don't worry – you won't be on your own. Training will be provided to get you comfortable in your roles, and you'll always have a staff DSI data scientist or postdoc in your meetings to help you
What is the time commitment and expectations for participants?
The DSI provides experiential learning opportunities aligned with standard industry practice and adopts an Agile methodology for running projects. This means that you'll be in about 3 meetings per week:
- One meeting up to 1.5 hours
- Two meetings usually 30 minutes to an hour
Outside of these meetings, you'll be expected to complete (or make meaningful progress) on the tasks you're assigned during that week. We want you to have the best learning experience and also meet the project objectives, so we do expect our participants to attend all project meetings; however, we do understand the occasional absence due to interviews, illness, etc.
How do I pre-register?
Fill out the brief pre-registration form Spring 2025 Project Interest to express your interest. You will receive an email on Tuesday, December 17th with:
- Complete list of available projects
- Official application form
- Detailed role descriptions
- Project-specific requirements
We look forward to your involvement!
Spring 2025 Projects - Coming Soon!
Stay tuned as we will have the official list of available projects announced on Tuesday, December 17th.
Pre-register to the first to know when applications are made available.