Data Science and AI Accelerator FAQs
Learn more about proposing an Accelerator project
Click the questions below to expand and show the answers.
What is the Data Science and AI Accelerator program?
The Data Science and AI Accelerator is a program that brings together data science and AI experts with domain experts throughout the campus. Accelerator projects are a close collaboration between the project lead who submits the proposal and one of the eScience Data Scientists. A key feature of the Accelerator program is flexibility in the duration and intensity of the project, which will be mutually agreed on by the project lead and the data scientist collaborator.
What makes for a successful proposal?
The proposal will be read by an interdisciplinary audience, so using less jargon specific to your field of study will help our reviewers understand your project. It should focus on the data, methodological approaches, and challenges in your project that you need help with from a data scientist. Moreover, we strongly recommend proposing a reasonable scope of work for the time period with specific goals. While the context of how this will fit into a larger research agenda is helpful, we need to be able to identify specific goals for the period of the Accelerator.
Will the data scientists write software for me?
The approach of the Accelerator program is centered around building capacity — helping those who propose projects to learn the skills and tools they need to do their projects. We do not expect that one of our data scientists would write a significant amount of code, rather they will sit with you and help you write the code. We find that this approach leads to better long-term sustainability of the projects because the project lead feels able and empowered to maintain and update the code as needed. If you are seeking professional software engineering support beyond the scope of the accelerator program, please consider UW SSEC as a partner on funded research projects in any field.
Who is this for? Can I apply if I’m a professor, grad student, postdoc, or staff?
This program is intended for any UW professor, graduate student, postdoc or staff across all three UW campuses. We require that each project has a project lead who is invested in the project and able to spend a significant amount of time working on the project. We anticipate that project leads will spend time working on the project outside of the time they spend directly collaborating with the data scientist.
How long does an Accelerator project last?
The duration of an Accelerator project is flexible from just few weeks up to two academic quarters, depending on the needs of the project and the availability of the data scientist collaborator. The proposal form includes questions about preferred project duration and intensity. For selected projects, the project lead and the data scientist collaborator will iterate on and finalize these expectations. We recognize that proposers may find it challenging to estimate the work time needed, especially if they are pushing into a new technical space. We will use your estimates as a starting point to understand your availability for engagement and to begin developing a project plan.
Does my data need to be “clean” before submitting a proposal?
Not necessarily. We frequently find that data preparation tasks take an inordinate amount of project resources. We are interested in exploring solutions to these problems that allow researchers to focus on “doing science” instead of munging around with data formats. It is helpful to have the data “in hand” or easily accessible before starting a project.
I need to move my work to the cloud, can you help with that?
Yes. We have extensive expertise with moving code and data to cloud infrastructures such Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and the Google Cloud Platform. A reasonable accelerator project would be to move an existing workflow to the cloud in a cost-effective manner.
Is there a way to get informal help before submitting an Accelerator proposal?
Yes. We strongly encourage anyone who is interested to consult one of our data or research scientists before submitting a proposal. Please see our Office Hours page for more information.
I work with sensitive data. Can I still apply to the Accelerator?
Yes. Our preference is to publish our code and data to the web, as this promotes transparency and reproducibility. That said, we understand that not all data sets are suitable for publication. We are flexible.