SLU Data Science Seminar

We are a collaborative, interdisciplinary group at Saint Louis University focused on building community around open source software and open science. Our goal is to bring faculty, students, and staff together from around the University in a way that bridges traditional barriers to collaboration and learning within colleges and universities. We are also dedicated to creating a welcoming, inclusive data science community here at SLU (see the ‘Inclusion and our Code of Conduct’ section below).

We organize the following efforts:

1. We run seminars each semester - four 1 hour lessons on a specific topic. We currently have a rotation of six seminars that we are beginning again in Fall 2018, and all of our materials are available through GitHub.
2. We run an annual ATLAS Week session that aims to provide participants with a brief introduction to R and the tidyverse.
3. We have at least one brownbag seminar per semester focused on using open source and/or open science techniques.
4. Beginning in the Fall of 2018, we’ll be hosting campus-wide meet ups for the open source data science community here at SLU. We have tentative plans for two meet ups during the 2018-19 academic year. We’re hoping to identify sources of funding to make these happen regularly passed next year.
5. We are building a database of classes taught here at SLU that use open source software to help students and faculty identify the best opportunities to expand their skills. This will be available beginning Fall 2018.
6. We host the openGIS project, which provides access to data about the St. Louis region as well as software tools for working with local data.

Inclusion and our Code of Conduct

In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, the SLU DSS is dedicated to making participation in our project and our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

We include the Contributor Covenant in all of our repositories and follow it for our offline events. We aim, both online and offline, to create a positive environment for all of our facilitators, maintainers, and participants. Examples of behavior that contributes to creating a positive environment include:

• Using welcoming and inclusive language
• Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences
• Gracefully accepting constructive criticism
• Focusing on what is best for the community
• Showing empathy towards other community members

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

• The use of sexualized language or imagery and unwelcome sexual attention or advances
• Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
• Public or private harassment
• Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or electronic address, without explicit permission
• Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting the SLU DSS organizers: Christina Gacia, Ph.D., Kelly Lovejoy, Ph.D., and Christopher Prener, Ph.D.. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that is deemed necessary and appropriate to the circumstances. Complaints involving members of the Saint Louis University community may be forwarded to the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity. The project team is obligated to maintain confidentiality with regard to the reporter of an incident unless otherwise obligated to report that incident to Saint Louis University.