Welcome to another packed week at GC Digital Initiatives! I want to begin this week’s post by highlighting 2 opportunities to receive funding for your research: Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants (PDIG) and the Data for Public Good program. This year, master’s and doctoral students qualify for any of the 3 categories of PDIG award: training, start up, and implementation awards ranging from $500 – $6,000. Students in good standing who will be enrolled in Spring 2023 from any discipline are eligible. Please read below for more information about the grants and how to apply. The Data for Public Good project will support up teams of researchers who propose a public data-centered project. More information and how to apply is also found below.

This week we’re also offering one workshop on “Tables, Pandas, and Python.” We also will be hosting User Group meetings for those interested in digital mapping and Python. Also, you won’t want to miss GC Digital Fellow Zach Lloyd’s latest blog post on the Reading Documentation, which gives helpful tips to learn how to navigate the confusing world of software documentation.

You can find out more on our website (http://cuny.is/gcdi), which includes weekly posts about ongoing events, and through social media. Follow us on Twitter (@cunygcdi and @digital_fellows) or now on Instagram (@digital_fellows).

Table of Contents

1. Calls for Applications: Applications are now open for the Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants and the Data For Public Good program. More information about both opportunities are below
2. Workshops: Workshops are structured, hands-on learning opportunities that are free and open to all GC-affiliated students, faculty, and staff. Registration using the links below is required to receive a Zoom link.
3. User Group Meetings: User Group meetings are informal, interdisciplinary, free, and CUNY-wide communities of researchers and pedagogues who use similar digital tools. This week the Mapping User Group and the Python User Group will be meeting. These meetings offer a welcoming space for beginners through advanced researchers to discuss potential projects, current challenges, or specific problems. Instructions on how to join each group can be found below.
4. Python and Web Design Series: If you’ve always wanted to learn how to use Python to improve your research, now is your opportunity to join a short workshop series that GC Digital Fellow Rebecca Krisel and Postdoctoral Fellow Chelsea Lane are leading this month. The series includes 5 workshops that take participants from the basics through ingesting data using APIs. Or, if you’re more interested in website design, you might prefer another series led by Chelsea Lane and GC Digital Fellow Zach Lloyd. Details about both series can be found below. Don’t forget to register for each workshop!

Calls for Applications

Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants (PDIG) DUE: FRIDAY, November 11^th @ 5 PM
Applications for the Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants (PDIG) are supported this year through generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan. Apply for financial support for training in digital skills (up to $500), to start and create a proof of concept digital project (up to $2,000), or to implement a proof of concept (up to $6,000). All Spring 2023 matriculated master’s and doctoral students in good standing are eligible to apply.
More information available on our website: https://gcdi.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2022/10/17/pdig22-23/
To apply, complete the application at http://cuny.is/pdig22-23.

Data for Public Good DUE: Monday, November 8, 2023 @ 5 PM
For the fifth year, GC Digital Initiatives and the Mina Rees Library are accepting applications from Graduate Center students who have achieved an introductory fluency with the Python programming language to participate in a collaborative project designed to provide experience working with public-facing data and programming to produce a collaborative project for the public good. This year, applications will be accepted as collaborative proposals from groups of 3-8 students. Applications will consist of a proposed dataset and project plan. Successful teams will have the opportunity to work with advisors, draw on local expertise– in project management, outreach, development, Python programming, website design, data visualization, and more– and will each receive $1,000 stipends to support the realization of their project.
More information is available on our website: https://gcdi.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2022/10/17/d4pg22-23/
To apply, complete the application at http://cuny.is/d4pg22-23.

Workshops

NOTE: All workshops will take place on Zoom. Registration is free but required in order to receive the Zoom link.

Tables and Pandas and Python! Oh my!, Friday, October 28th, 2:00 – 4:00 PM

In this online synchronous workshop (part three of the Fall Python Series), we are going to learn some basic commands in Pandas, an expansive Python library for working with tabular data (aka spreadsheets). Some introductory Python knowledge is necessary, since we will not have time to go over the basics during the workshop.
Learn more and register here: Tables and Pandas and Python! Oh my!

Create Elegant Websites with Bootstrap, Friday, November 4th, 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Learn how to make use of Bootstrap, a free and open-source CSS framework, to quickly and easily make your webpage look like it was created by a pro! This workshop is the second in the series of our web development track, and assumes a basic knowledge of HTML/CSS. 
Learn more and register here: Create Elegant Webpages with Bootstrap

User Group Meetings

R User Group Meeting, Friday, October 28th, 3:00 – 4:00 PM

The R User Group meeting (RUG) is back on Zoom. This user group is beginner-friendly and we will decide what R topics to learn based on the common participants’ interests. This week we will co-work on the Spotify API and analysis of Spotify data (statistical testing and visualization) and see what interesting insights there are. We also have an R User Slack Channel! https://cuny.is/rug

Join our CUNY Academic Commons User Group in order to receive the Zoom link for the meeting and for updates about future meetings.

Python and Web Development Series

Fall Python Series: An Exploration of Research Tools for Beginners, biweekly Fridays from 2-4pm, continuing Friday, October 14th.  

The Fall Python Series comprises 5 total workshops that take students from never having used Python before through skills such as text analysis and data cleaning to web scraping and using APIs. Participants are expected to sign up for all workshops in the series (listed below) and maintain regular participation. If you missed our Introduction to Python workshop on 9/30, you are welcome to catch up using our online curriculum and join us for the remaining workshops. Core skills will continue to be explained and reinforced as we work on projects over the course of the semester and in Python User Group (PUG) meetings that meet alternative weeks on Fridays from 3-4:00PM.

Please register for the following workshops to take part in the Fall Python Series:

• Text Analysis with NLTK, Friday, October 14th, 2-4:00 PM  
• Tables and Pandas and Python! Oh my!, Friday, October 28th, 2-4:00PM
• Web Scraping with Beautiful Soup, November 11th,  2-4:00PM
• Plugging into APIs, Friday, December 2nd, 2-4:00PM

Web Development Series

GCDI is hosting a series of four sequential workshops on web development over the course of this academic year. This fall, we will cover setting up the structure of a webpage using HTML CSS, and Bootstrap, and in the spring, we will add interactivity to our web pages using JavasScript and Leaflet. If you miss a workshop in the series, but want to attend the next one, please check out our online resource on HTML and CSS, or send us an email.

Find out more and register now for the next workshop in the web development series on 11/4 from 1-3:00PM: Using Bootstrap to create visually stunning web pages.

New on our Blog: Ever struggled with reading software documentation? Digital Fellow Zach Lloyd provides some tips to read strategically and find what you need. Read more on Tagging the Tower.

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