Alliance Goal 1. Capacity building in ‘Data Science for Community Impact’: education, training and research for Hawai'i and the USAPI.

Activity 1.1. Produce an online Data Science for Oceania degree program and additional curriculum innovations for Alliance deployment.

  • Chaminade Data Science major curriculum review

    Completed in ALL-SPICE Year 1. The Curriculum Working Group led by Dr. Rylan Chong (Chaminade, TACC, UH) redesigned the DS major with new tracks explicitly focused on SDG-related DS. Academic Coulcil approval was secured In April 2023 and the revised program is in the AY23-24 Catalog.

  • Online Data Science for Oceania Degree Development

    A new online, asynchronous major focusing on data science in the Pacific context is under development by the Curriculum Working Group, with a planned 2024 roll-out.

  • New Geospatial Certificate Programs

    Sponsored by the P3I Pacific Intelligence Innovation Initiative. Chaminade will offer two new GIS certifications in 2023-24. (1) An 18 credit graduate certificate to seek accreditation by the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, (2) A United Nations CIFAL Certification in GIS for Sustainability Applications. Up to 60 students are expected in the first three years of these programs, from industry, non-profit and agency backgrounds.

Activity 1.2. Build capacity for faculty research in Data Science across the Alliance

  • Faculty-in-Residence

    Faculty from Chaminade, Alliance, or Partner institutions can affiliate as ‘In-Residence’ with ALL-SPICE. The FIR program provide upskilling and mentoring in data science, as well as facilitated research collaborations, to enhance faculty research capacity and competitiveness.

  • Faculty in Residence Cohort 1: Dr. Kelly Treece

    ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

    CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY

    Project Title: Data Analytics and Machine Learning approaches to the study of use of force predictors in police officer records..

    ALL-SPICE Liaison: Dr. Catherine Brockway

    Undergraduate Researcher: Pamela Oda

  • Faculty in Residence Cohort 1: Dr. Michael Weichhaus

    ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY

    CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY

    Project Title: Application of data analytics workflows to cancer biology.

    ALL-SPICE Liaison: Dr. Catherine Brockway

  • Faculty in Residence Cohort 1: Kahoali`i Keahi

    KUMU and LECTURER IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

    CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY

    Project Title: Keawawa Wetland Restoration Monitoring Program

    Undergraduate Researcher: Mia Petrisevac

    ALL-SPICE Liaison: Dr. Catherine Brockway

  • Faculty In Residence Cohort 2: Dr. Apo Aporosa

    LECTURER, SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

    FULLBRIGHT SCHOLAR 2022-23

    Te Huataki Waiora School of Health

    Te Kura Whatu Oho Mauri School of Psychology

    UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO

    AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND

    Project Title: Efficacy of Kava Talanoa therapy for PTSD in Pasifika veterans and first responders.

    ALL-SPICE Liaison: Dr. JD Baker

  • Faculty in Residence Cohort 2: Kristina Sayama, MPA, CM

    EXTENSION AGENT II, COMMUNITY AND RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

    PACIFIC STEP-UP COORDINATOR

    UNIVERSITY OF GUAM

    Project Title: Data analytics applications in community development in Guam, adaptation of Dataskills training program for deployment with community and urban planning students at UOG.

    Undergraduate Researcher: TBC

    ALL-SPICE Liaison: Dr. Rylan Chong

  • Faculty in Residence Cohort 2: Dr. Frederique Kandel

    ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY

    CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY

    Project Title: Environmental analytics in Hawaii and the Truk Lagoon

    Undergraduate Researcher: TBD

    ALL-SPICE Liaison: Dr. Helen Turner

  • Faculty In Residence Cohort 2: Dr. LJ Rayphand

    DEAN OF OUTREACH

    CAROLINE COLLEGE, CHUUK, FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA

    Project Title: Data analytics applications to island resilience and community challenges in Chuuk, adaptation of Dataskills training program for deployment with education majors at Caroline College.

    Undergraduate Researcher: TBD

    ALL-SPICE Liaison: Dr. Helen Turner

  • Researcher In Residence Cohort 2: Mata'uitafā Temukisa Faiai, MPH

    PhD CANDIDATE IN EPIDEMIOLOGY

    YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

    Project Title: Understanding adolescent cardiometabolic health in American Samoa

    Undergraduate Researcher: Upumonipeleleagaga Logologo

    ALL-SPICE Liaison: Dr. Helen Turner

  • Collaborative Research Projects

    Faculty and analysts across ALL-SPICE are engaged in collaborative and data science research, leveraging the expertise of the Alliance network to strengthen their programs. Here are some examples………

  • SDG 4: QUALITY EDUCATION

    Dr. Alex Stokes
    Justice-oriented approaches to data science education.

  • SDG 5: GENDER EQUALITY

    Dr. Alex Stokes

    AI/ML approaches to the identification of intersex variation in EHR.

  • SDG 4: QUALITY EDUCATION

    Dr. Rylan Chong

    Team based active learning approaches to self-efficacy and belonging in Data Science

    Click Here

  • SDG 10: REDUCED INEQUALITIES

    Dr. Catherine Brockway

    Language equity in Data Science

    Cognitive linguistic approaches to advancing the SDG

  • SDG 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELLBEING

    Dr. Treena Becker

    Dr. Helen Turner

    Connor Flynn, MS

    Dr. Alberto-Gonzalez-Martinez

    CDC Overdose to Action Project: Novel Harm Reduction Indices based on the Treatment Episodes Dataset (TEDS)

  • SDGs 1-17

    Connor Flynn, MS

    Dr. Helen Turner

    ML analysis of importance features predicting SDG attainment in Small Island Developing States

  • SDG 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELLBEING

    Dr. Helen Turner

    Dr. Alex Stokes

    Troy Wooton, MS

    Beverly Rice

    Pharmacoanalytic approaches to drug discovery for global health.

  • SDG 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELLBEING

    Dr. Kelly Gaither

    Individualizing Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth through Digital Phenotyping

  • SDG 10: REDUCED INEQUALITIES

    Dr. Kelly Gaither

    Diversity and Inclusion in data visualization

  • SDG 11: SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES

    Dr. Rylan Chong

    Community Dashboarding for Health and Well-being on the Waianae Coast

Activity 1.3. Develop and implement a ‘Data4SDG’ program of undergraduate research experiences linking Data Science to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

>40 students have completed REU-style experiences to date, from 6 Hawaii and USAPI institutions

Activity 1.4. Promote Hawai'i-Pacific student participation in national data science and computing competitions

Advanced Computing for Social Change, BIONIC Consortium’s Operation Red Dawn and an NSA Datathon are just some of the challenges being targeted by Alliance students. Co-PIs CHong and Gaither, together with TACC’s Rosalia Gomez and Dawn Hunter and Chaminade data science faculty, implemented the first ‘Advanced Computing for Social Change-Pacific’. This new competition will bring together Pacific students to work on Pacific data challenges.

Activity 1.5. Design strategic data science curriculum additions to broaden participation and improve alignment with Pacific regional ontologies and epistemologies

Course redesign and new course development are focusing on data science in the Hawaii-Pacific region. DS101 The Data Lifecycle was redesigned in 2023 to incorporate use cases linked to the SDG and the Pacific region. Examples include use of resources such as the Hawaii EPSCoR Hawaii Climate Data Portal and the East West Center’s Pacific Drought Knowledge Exchange, as well as datasets related to indigenous health inequity and over-incarceration. Courses in AI Bias and Data Sovereignty are planned for the next years of the award.

Alliance Goal 2. Curate the Wayfinding to Data (W2D) portfolio of DS training opportunities spanning K-college and targeting marginalized populations.

Activity 2.1. Enhance a K-12 Informal STEM program with data science content.

Over 3000 K-12 keiki to date have been served using new data science and machine learning modules developed for the Chaminade ‘I am a Scientist’ STEM outreach program. DS/ML modules are aligned with, and assessed by, the Stanford YouCubed K-12 Data Science competencies framework. IAS served 49 events on Oahu, Molokai, Maui, Hawaii Island and Kauai in 2022-23.

Activity 2.2. Deploy the DataSkills program for upskilling/professional development with Hawaii/USAPI students, and key Alliance social sector partners.

Group I: Undergraduates and faculty in Hawai'i and USAPI two- and four-year colleges

DataSkills is offered to Chaminade studnets and each semester to cohorts recruited from the NSF LSAMP Islands of Opportunity Alliance throughout Hawaii and the USAPI.

Group II: DataSkills for upskilling and reskilling in marginalized populations

In collaboration with Second Chance Pell we are developing a Data Science Certification and Data Physicalization program at the Halawa Men’s Correctional Facility. Program co-design with an incarcerated cohort started in Spring 2023, and our first formerly incarcerated Data Science intern joined our team in March 2023. In addition, the second cohort at Habilitat is planned to be residents in the Long Term Addiction Treatment Center, starting in Fall 2023.

Group III. DataSkills for organizational change in the social sector

Data Science training for staff at the Habilitat Long Term Addiction Treatment Center took place successfully over Spring 2023, with 11 staff participants.The Kamehameha Schools Data Science Institute, which grew out of an initial DataSKills training program, is continuing to grow with Alliance collaboration. Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Environmental Justice is our next DataSkills site, starting in Fall 2023, with addition programs in development with Hawaii non-profits, a Guam community development agency and a Chuukese women’s group.

Activity 2.3. SPICE Summer Data Science Institute.

SPICE applications opened in February and 30 participants were selected from over 120 applicants. Additional places in SPICE 2023 were sponsored by Hawaii EPSCoR, and the P3I initiative. Successful applicants are from Hawaii and the USAPI, and include indigenous students, veterans and non-traditional students. SPICE 2023 ran June 1-June 30.

Activity 2.4. Employer Internships.

Over 25 students have been placed in paid internships to date and Mahalo to our internship hosts!

Alliance Goal 3. Expand the STEM Educational Research (SER) knowledge base for inclusive Hawai'i-Pacific Data Science education.

Activity 3.1. SER project 1: Justice-oriented Approaches to Data Science Education (JADE).

Dr. Alex Stokes leads an SER project focused on Justice-Oriented pedagogy in Data Science. Justice-oriented pedagogy places students’ sociocultural concerns and identities centrally in the classroom. The central hypothesis of this study is that Justice-oriented pedagogy will increase inclusion and belonging in data science for marginalized and minoritized students and participants. To date 69 participants in Alliance data training programs (classes, summer immersions, research internships) have contributed to a survey study. The study evaluates knowledge, beliefs, skills an attitudes (KBSA) towards data science when viewed through a social justice lens. JADE interventions that include social-justice oriented content, activities and inclusive pedagogical practices are being piloted, and assessed, in classes at the University of Hawaii and Chaminade.

Activity 3.2. SER project 2: Active team learning impacts on research self-efficacy in DS students and participants

Dr. Rylan leads an SER project focused on active team learning and self-efficacy in Hawaii-Pacific data science students. The study hypothesizes that there will be a positive relationship between active team learning experiences and research self-efficacy in data science participants. Research self-efficacy is relatively understudied in DS, particularly for minoritized and marginalized students. The study will ask identify positive and negative experiences during active team learning experiences that contributes to research self-efficacy scores on a novel survey instrument. Dr. Chong will discern and differentiate actors that improve (e.g., team projects, mentoring, real world application, and research competencies gained) or decrease (e.g., time pressure, negative team experiences) research self -efficacy in data science participants.

Cross-cutting Activities

JEDI Laha

Online seminar series on Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Data Science. Held in collaboration with Hawai EPSCoR. Features Alliance and external speakers on JEDI in Data Science and the application of data science to social justice.

at least monthly

organizer: Dr. JD Baker

Student-led Journal CLub

Open, online journal club focusing on papers that use data science to address the SDG. Uses a ‘Presenter, Data Master, Devil’s Advocate’ format to explore papers selected by students and faculty.

at least monthly

organizers: Beverly Rice and Mata’u Faiai