Stewards of Data: A Practical Handbook for Undergraduate Researchers in Engineering and Applied Sciences

Filled with actionable guides and real-world examples, Stewards of Data: A Practical Handbook for Undergraduate Researchers in Engineering and Applied Sciences allows readers to utilize the provided templates and guides almost immediately. In today’s world, data is ubiquitous and AI is growing exponentially. Practicing ethical data management is, therefore, crucial. Ensuring that data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable is essential. This book is an interdisciplinary effort aimed at embedding ethical data life-cycle management education into undergraduate research. The authors present a Data Steward Framework, which serves as a guide for undergraduate researchers, the graduate students who mentor them, postdocs, and faculty. The toolkit prompts mentors and undergraduates to reason through ethical considerations, future consequences, and trade-off decisions as they plan, collect, describe, manage, visualize, curate, and share their data.

Şenay Purzer is a professor of engineering education at Purdue University. A Fulbright Specialist, she is recognized for her work in undergraduate engineering education. Purzer is renowned for her expertise in conscientious design reasoning. She has co-led numerous research projects over the past seventeen years at Purdue to improve undergraduate education, including the NSF-funded I project, Prioritizing Data Life Cycle Management for Shaping Next Generation Researchers, that informed the publication of this book.

Wei Zakharov is an associate professor and engineering information specialist in the Libraries and School of Information Studies and (by courtesy) the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her work focuses on data and information literacy education, and online learning. She has developed and taught several undergraduate courses, including Foundations of Data Management and Understanding Your Research Data, which supports Purdue’s data science and undergraduate research certificates. Zakharov mentors undergraduate research courses and leads National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant projects in an effort to advance undergraduate data stewardship education.

Carla B. Zoltowski is an associate professor of engineering practice in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and (by courtesy) the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She is also the director of Purdue’s Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program and interim director of EPICS. She has mentored hundreds of student design and research teams in EPICS and VIP. Her research includes the professional formation of engineers, human-centered design, and engineering ethics. She is coprincipal investigator on the NSF-funded Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project Prioritizing Data Life Cycle Management for Shaping Next Generation Researchers.