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Dartmouth DIFUSE

The github home for Dartmouth College's Data Science Infused in STEM Education (DIFUSE) Project.

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DIFUSE Project at Dartmouth College. Funded by NSF IUSE1917002

About DIFUSE Module Directory How to Use This Site Credits
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About DIFUSE BacktoTop

DIFUSE is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project (NSF IUSE-1917002) at Dartmouth College aimed at creating opportunities for undergraduates to learn and use data science in introductory STEM courses and beyond. We work with undergraduates, PhD students, and faculty to develop data science "modules” to integrate into course curriculum. We define modules as assignments, or a series of exercises, that use principles of data science to teach a concept relevant to the course. We also provide opportunites to undergraduate and PhD students to apply data science and data visualization through internships and work in the DALI Lab. The aim of the DIFUSE project is to help integrate data science modules into introductory STEM and social science curricula at Dartmouth College.

To evaluate the impact of the modules and our work, we have developed a Survey of Attitudes towards Data Science and host data and other research materials related to the project.

You can contact the DIFUSE team at difuse@dartmouth.edu.


Module Directory BacktoTop

This set of repositories consists of more than a dozen modules that introduce some aspect(s) of data science into different introductory courses in STEM and the social sciences. The broad aim of all the modules is to stimulate interest in data science in students and to expose them to how data science can be used in different fields.

  • Find below a list of all the DIFUSE data science modules.
  • Each module is stored in a separate repository with more information on its components and use.
  • Access a repository by clicking on its Module Name
  • or download the entire module now by clicking on its Download Link

DIFUSE Modules

Repository Name Subject Description Download Link
anthropology-behavior-sampling Anthropology Quantifies behavior using focal bout and instantaneous scan sampling in Excel download
anthropology-footprint-collect-analyze Anthropology Uses footprint data to make inferences about historical societies download
astronomy-celestial-bodies Astronomy Explores visualization and interpretation of observatory data in Google Colab (Python) download
astronomy-imaging Astronomy Use astrometric analysis to estimate orbits, mass, and statistical error with regards to Uranus and its moons. download
biology-remote-sensing Biology Explores the relationships between land use, deer population, and lyme cases in four U.S. states in Google Colab download
earth-science-environmental-change Earth Science Examines solar data with Excel to measure environmental change download
ecology-eddy-covariance Ecology Explores the eddy covariance method download
engineering-airline-analysis Electrical Engineering Uses statistics and supervised machine learning to inform airline decision making in MATLAB download
wind-speed-power-analysis Energy & Environmental Engineering Examines the wind power equations and other considerations for siting a wind farm in Google Colab (Python) download
engineering-analyze-first-order-systems Engineering Models first order systems in MATLAB with footage of a small, motorized cart download
engineering-visualize-air-quality Environmental Engineering Examines air quality data in Germany using R-studio “openair” package download
engineering-glucose-model-ode Engineering Models the glucose insulin system with ordinary differential equations in MATLAB download
engineering-statistics-in-R Engineering Explores statistics in R download
covid-wave-environmental-map-regression Environmental Studies Examines the racial, environmental, and economic influences on covid-19 mortality in Louisiana download
geography-extreme-climate-events Geography Examines data on climate extremes in a warming planet with Python Numpy and pandas download
sociology-health-outcomes Sociology Examines the effect of different factors on self-rated health in Texas counties in Google Colab (Python) download

Inside a Module's Repo BacktoTop

download

All the modules have been standardised this way for a better user experience

Credits BacktoTop

You can contact the DIFUSE team at difuse@dartmouth.edu.

Investigators

Petra Bonfert-Taylor: Principal Investigator

Petra is a professor of engineering and associate dean for diversity and inclusion at Dartmouth College. She teaches Introduction to Scientific Computing and Embedded Systems in the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. Her research interests include complex analysis, geometric function theory, discrete groups, complex dynamics, and mathematics of medical imaging.

Lorie Loeb: Principal Investigator

Lorie is the faculty director of DALI Lab and director of the Digital Arts Program (MS and Undergraduate) at Dartmouth College. Her work is about creating well-designed technology tools that change the way people think and behave. Her research focuses on effective methods for presenting and visualizing information in order to get people’s attention, communicate effectively, and change behavior. The DALI Lab is an innovation and leadership "garage" where students from all over campus come together in small teams to work on big problems.

Scott Pauls: Principal Investigator

Scott is a professor in the department of mathematics and Director of the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL). Professor Pauls' research in mathematics focuses on building and analyzing network models for social, biological, and physical systems. In his theoretical work, he aims to find network theoretic signatures for outcomes of dynamical processes. Recently, he has been able to apply these techniques to systems in political science, economics, neuroscience, and environmental science.

Laura Ray: Principal Investigator

Laura is a professor of engineering and senior associate dean of faculty development at Dartmouth College. She teaches Introduction to Control Theory, Mechatronics, and Responsible & Ethical Conduct of Research in the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. Her research interests include system dynamics and controls, robotics, signal processing, and machine intelligence.

Merve Kursav: DIFUSE Post-Doctoral Associate

Merve is a research associate in the mathematics department and works at DIFUSE project as a post-doc. She received a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics Education with a minor in Measurement and Quantitative Methods. Her research focuses on the experiences and cognition of teachers and instructors who engage historically marginalized students in mathematics classes, as well as the mechanisms that impact students' STEM retention and success in STEM fields. She has spent much of her career in all aspects of K-16 mathematics and STEM education.

DIFUSE Team Members

Name Class Year Project(s)
Garret Andreine 2022 conversation-sentiment-analysis*
Sabrina Barton 2024 anthropology-behavior-sampling
Elisabeth Baumann 2022 earth-science-environmental-change, geography-extreme-climate-events
Andrew Bean 2023 engineering-visualize-air-quality, biology-remote-sensing, astro-imaging
James Busch GR astronomy-celestial-bodies, covid-wave-environmental-map-regression*
Sonal Butala 2022 DALI
William Chen 2022 covid-wave-environmental-map-regression*
Jackeline Corona 2022 engineering-glucose-model-ode
Pierre Desvallons 2021 conversation-sentiment-analysis*, ecology-eddy-covariance
Joseph Gyorda 2022, GR Workshop, Deployment, engineering-airline-analysis
Carrie Harris GR astronomy-imaging
Vivek Hazari 2022 conversation-sentiment-analysis*, differential-equations*
Taylor Hickey 2023 Project Manager
Luis Hinojosa 2024 wind-speed-power-analysis, Deployment
Pepper Huang GR conversation-sentiment-analysis*
Osman Khan 2021 sociology-health-outcomes, ecology-eddy-covariance, Data Visualization Fellow
May Oo Khine 2023 Workshop, biology-remote-sensing
Sarah Korb 2022 engineering-statistics-in-R
Katherine Lasonde 2023 sociology-health-outcomes
Sarah Lee GR earth-science-environmental-change, geography-extreme-climate-events
Benjamin Levesque 2024 engineering-airline-analysis, Github, Project Manager
Kyra McLaughlin 2023 sociology-health-outcomes
Phillip Mulford GR engineering-analyze-first-order-systems
Quang Nguyen GR ecology-eddy-covariance
Emma Nguyen 2025 biology-remote-sensing, Workshop
Clement Nyanhango GR differential-equations*, astronomy-celestial-bodies
Ayobami Ogunmolasuyi GR conversation-sentiment-analysis*
Muna Onuoha 2025 wind-speed-power-analysis, Github
Alexander Robertson 2023 engineering-statistics-in-R
Monika Roznere GR engineering-visualize-air-quality, anthropology-footprint-collect-analyze
Logan Sankey 2020 anthropology-footprint-collect-analyze, anthropology-behavior-sampling, engineering-glucose-model-ode, engineering-analyze-first-order-systems, wind-speed-power-analysis
Garrett Scott 2022 astronomy-celestial-bodies
William Toth 2023 conversation-sentiment-analysis*
Tiffany Yu 2021 Project Manager
Rahul Gupta 2026 covid-wave-environmental-map-regression, anthropology-behavior-sampling, engineering-airline-analysis, ecology-eddy-covariance, sociology-health-outcomes, engineering-statistics-in-R, engineering-visualize-air-quality
Reshmi Anwar 2025 covid-wave-environmental-map-regression, wind-speed-power-analysis, astronomy-celestial-bodies
Gabrielle Park 2025 biology-remote-sensing, earth-science-environmental-change, engineering-glucose-model-ode, geography-extreme-climate-events, engineering-analyze-first-order-systems

-* This module is not available on GitHub at this time

Collaborators from other institutions

Name Institution Course Name at Institution DIFUSE Project name
Betul Bilgin University of Illinois at Chicago - Adaptation of existing module
Chao Wang Arizona State University EEE 350 engineering-airline-analysis
David Guerra St. Anselm College PS/CS 211 biology-remote-sensing
Jay Garaycochea Goucher College BIO 102 biology-remote-sensing
Fernando Soto Penn State University EGEE 438 wind-speed-power-analysis
Tanushree Roy Texas Tech University ME 3333 engineering-analyze-first-order-systems

Popular repositories

  1. geography-extreme-climate-events geography-extreme-climate-events Public

    Students examine drought, famine, floods, landslides and other extreme weather events looking through the lens of climate change, while developing skills in Python’s Numpy and pandas.

    Jupyter Notebook 3 3

  2. 21w_ASTR15 21w_ASTR15 Public

    Jupyter Notebook

  3. engineering-statistics-in-R engineering-statistics-in-R Public

    Students learn basic functional R commands/procedures whilst tying in key statistical content. Repository for ENGS93 text files

    Jupyter Notebook

  4. covid-wave-environmental-map-regression covid-wave-environmental-map-regression Public

    This repo contains data and code for a web app designed for the visualization and analysis of geospatial data for the ENVS3 course, developed by the DIFUSE project (NSF IUSE-1917002).

    Jupyter Notebook 2

  5. 21x_ENGS20_old 21x_ENGS20_old Public archive

  6. Survey-of-Attitudes-towards-Data-Science Survey-of-Attitudes-towards-Data-Science Public

    This repository contains all of the materials for the Survey of Attitudes towards Data Science, developed by the DIFUSE project (NSF IUSE-1917002).

Repositories

Showing 10 of 21 repositories
  • engineering-glucose-model-ode Public

    Students find numerical solutions to a first order ordinary differential equation (ODE) model of glucose-insulin system using Euler’s method and least squares in MATLAB.

    0 0 0 0 Updated Feb 21, 2024
  • astronomy-imaging Public

    Students use astrometric analysis to estimate orbits, mass, and statistical error with regards to Uranus and its moons.

    Jupyter Notebook 0 0 0 0 Updated Feb 18, 2024
  • .github Public
    0 1 0 0 Updated Feb 16, 2024
  • anthropology-behavior-sampling Public

    Students use two standard data collection methods in anthropology, focal bout sampling and instantaneous scan sampling, on video footage of a basketball game to create Excel data sets on shot taking.

    0 1 0 0 Updated Feb 15, 2024
  • engineering-airline-analysis Public

    Students reinforce the introductory statistical concepts through the process of building a data analysis pipeline. Statistical concepts are explored to gain an understanding of the data, then used to implement three supervised machine learning models in MATLAB.

    Python 0 1 0 0 Updated Feb 15, 2024
  • anthropology-footprint-collect-analyze Public

    Students use anthropological methods to make inferences about societies with fossil records. Students collect data on their own footprints, analyze aggregated class data, and use their insights to infer behaviors of historical populations.

    0 1 0 0 Updated Feb 15, 2024
  • engineering-visualize-air-quality Public

    Students model air quality dispersion using the “openair” package in R, analyze air quality datasets in Germany, and make recommendations based on their findings.

    0 1 0 0 Updated Feb 14, 2024
  • ecology-eddy-covariance Public

    Students explore and observe patterns from raw eddy covariance data and implications towards net ecosystem exchange. Students discover important meteorological and phenological properties that contribute towards the overall ecosystem.

    0 1 0 0 Updated Feb 8, 2024
  • earth-science-environmental-change Public

    Students collect and analyze solar incidence angles over time to evaluate their own hypotheses, coupling this with the additional data analysis in Excel to draw conclusions about environmental change.

    0 1 0 0 Updated Feb 1, 2024
  • biology-remote-sensing Public

    Students learn data analysis and visualization in Google Colab while investigating a dataset at the intersection of remote sensing, biology, and ecology. Students work with data in table format, map format, and PCA and k-means plots in the main lab assignment.

    Jupyter Notebook 0 3 0 0 Updated Feb 1, 2024

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