Evelyn Williams, new Research Data Support Assistant

Hello, readers of Edinburgh Research Data Blog!

Last month I joined the University’s Research Data Service team as a Research Data Support Assistant, and I’m excited to be back at the University after three long years working as a data scientist at tech start-ups.

A photo of the author in Barcelona.

Me with a bag of churros in the Montjuïc, Barcelona, where I spent a few months in the winter of 2022 – Photo credit: Evelyn Williams

This career pivot from tech into collections management feels natural to me as a lifelong collector and cataloguer. An early memory is winning a Stanley plastic small parts organiser at a village tombola, the kind you’d use to store picture hooks and screws. I’d never seen a more magical object in my life. I began hunting for groups of items tiny enough to fit in the compartments like it was my life’s work. Elastic bands, our Labrador’s fur during moulting season, glittery hair beads (it was the early 2000s), woodlice. My favourite present from last birthday was a Dymo label maker. When I first read the description for this role, working to archive the University’s research data sounded like a dream come true. It’s especially exciting to be dipping my toe into data management at a university where RDM is already so well established, thanks to the work of Robin Rice and the many others involved in developing the department and the University’s data management policy.

I’ve been curious about archives and collections for a long time. I loved interning as a Collections Assistant in Special Collections at the Sir Duncan Rice Library in 2017 while I was an undergraduate Linguistics student at the University of Aberdeen. I helped run the reading room, assisted with manuscript conservation and digitising, and carried out archive research for the Library’s exhibition. Exploring the stacks of manuscripts and ephemera, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. The highlight of my job was getting to see a volume of Audubon’s Birds of America (1827-1838). It was an incredibly special experience for lots of reasons – the sheer size of the book (it’s a meter tall!), the beauty of the illustrations, and the depictions of bird species that are now extinct. An example of an illustration of owls is shown below.

Barn owl illustration from Audubon's Birds of America.

Audubon, J. J. (1840) Barn Owl. The birds of America, plate CLXXI. New York, J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia, J.B. Chevalier. Photo credit: The John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing.

The photo below was included in the exhibition I worked on about medical innovation in wartime. So dramatic!

A photo of a nurse tying Sir Henry Gray’s surgical mask

A nurse tying Sir Henry Gray’s surgical mask. Photo credit: George Washington Wilson & Co. (1853 – 1908). DR GRAY ROYAL INFIRMARY ABERDEEN. [Photograph]. Aberdeen: The University of Aberdeen. GB 0231 MS 3792/D0500, George Washington Wilson & Co. photographic collection.

I’m thrilled to be back at the University and working with researchers again. The last time I worked here was three years ago as a Research Assistant while doing my master’s in Speech and Language Processing, helping researchers in the Centre for Speech Technology Research to evaluate audio processing models like computer-generated voices. I learned so much by being involved in lots of different research projects, and I’m looking forward to the huge scope of people and projects I’ll support in my new role.

That role was also where I first saw the potential of open data sharing. The University’s most accessed DataShare dataset was developed and shared by colleagues at CSTR, and has since been used and cited by research teams around the world, including at Google, Deepmind, and Meta as well as at countless universities. Making this speech data publicly available has contributed to big improvements in, for example, the speech devices used by many people with Motor Neurone Disease, and in the algorithms hearing aids use to make speech clearer.

Sharing your research data may sometimes seem like an afterthought to a project, but it can have a far-reaching impact and accelerate scientific progress. My hope is that in my new role I can help to further open research in a small way.

This photo from the TORGO project captures the process of recording facial movement during speech using an electromagnetic articulograph machine

Photo credit: The University of Toronto. (2012). Subject in AG500. The TORGO Database: Acoustic and Articulatory Speech From Speakers With Dysarthria. https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~complingweb/data/TORGO/torgo.html

This photo from the TORGO project captures the process of recording facial movement during speech using an electromagnetic articulograph machine. I used the TORGO dataset during my masters research, and I was grateful the researchers had published their data for academic use.

After I finished my masters I worked as a data scientist at a couple of tech start-ups, building artificial intelligence models. While I enjoy writing code and working on complex engineering projects, I didn’t like the restricted field of vision you have when you’re working to solve a narrow commercial problem. I’m happy to be in a more social role where I can support lots of different people and projects.

Photograph of a mug made by the author.

Some mugs I made for our most recent Open Studios event at Abbeymount Studios.

So far, the Research Data Service team has been really welcoming, and I feel lucky to be working with such knowledgeable and friendly people. I’ll be working 3.5 days a week with the RDS team, and on my other days I’ll likely be at the pottery studio, please see photo above, or reading. My collection of graphic novels is getting out of control, and I love fiction where nothing much happens but everything is just a bit unsettling. At the moment I’m trying to read everything by and about Shirley Jackson, as well as novels about disgruntled tech workers. Everyone I know is sick of me trying to get them to download the Libby app. (“It’s like Audible. But it’s FREE!”).

Evelyn Williams,

Research Data Support Assistant

Research Data Support team and DCC to host Skills4EOSC Fellow

University of Edinburgh has been chosen as one of 12 European institutions to host sponsored short secondments for data professionals in Open Science, as part of the Skills4EOSC Horizon Europe project. Whilst the Digital Curation Centre is a partner in the Skills4EOSC project (EOSC is the European Open Science Cloud), the Research Data Support team has been asked to be the primary host for the secondment, so the ‘fellow’ can participate and engage in the team’s day-to-day activities in supporting and training researchers in an academic setting.

Promotional image for Skills4EOSC fellowship

The project aims to develop common methodologies, activities and training resources to unify the current training landscape into a collaborative and reliable ecosystem and to provide dedicated community-specific support to leverage the potential of EOSC for open and data-intensive research. A number of enquiries have already been received and plans are currently underway with Library Research Support and the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) to support the application of a European candidate to work with the team for a month in either April or July, 2024, with a deadline for the application of 31 October. More information is at https://www.skills4eosc.eu/participate/fellowship-programme.

 

Coming full circle

The ins, outs and upside downs of Digital Research Services and lessons learned in the process.

I’ve spent the past three months working as a Researcher-in-Residence for Digital Research Services (DRS) at the University of Edinburgh, marking a transition from the completion of my PhD in which I stumbled my way through digital techniques, to the next exciting step in my career pathway as a training fellow for the Centre of Data, Culture and Society. This progression was greatly assisted by the experiences I acquired during my time with DRS, brief though it was. In particular, through reflection, awareness and facilitation of digital services and the research lifecycle in general, I developed a greater understanding of what digital research can offer, but also the roadblocks we’re slowly overcoming to get everyone there.

I came into this role as an emerging scholar in digital humanities, still getting to grips with the possibilities out there and slowly recognising the value the digital world harbours – a value I had previously dismissed or simply wasn’t aware of during my undergraduate studies. It is of course very easy to stand safely on solid ground, and reject the gleaming digital world over on the other side. Yet, over the weeks I’ve spent with DRS, I’ve seen various toolkits and techniques come past that could have been so useful, if I’d only known or gone looking for them. More than once, I’ve had a ‘wait, you can do that?’ moment when investigating different options available to the academic community. We are very fortunate to have so many amazing resources available right at our fingertips, thanks to the wide range of services the University provides access to, and I can strongly encourage anyone pondering the choice to go digital to give it a try! After all, there’s nothing to lose, and in the process you might discover that there are more effective ways to share your data with others (i.e. DataShare), safer and more secure ways to store and archive it (e.g. DataStore or DataVault), and faster and more reliable methods to analyse it that won’t destroy your personal device (meet Eddie or Eleanor some time).

This however alludes to the second major realisation I acquired, which is the importance of outreach and engagement to bring researchers over to the digital side. There’s no escaping the fact that researchers won’t go looking for digital assistance if they’re unaware that it’s available in the first place. This has been a major part of my role over the summer, and I’ve come to appreciate just how difficult this is within an organisation that is as multi-layered, complex and vast as the University service support system. Not only do we want to highlight our services to the target users themselves, but we also want to facilitate beneficial bridges between various organisational teams within the University network and DRS. Yet incorporating our events, trainings and seminars into their training centres, Learn pages and SharePoint sites is no small task! Nonetheless, by doing so we can provide the missing links or training that research communities are seeking, and augment pre-existing frameworks to develop a more holistic programme, that addresses needs across the diverse spectrum of applied research. This goal has been gaining traction, so watch this space (or rather, your inboxes) for more information in the coming academic year.

Finally, the third major insight I acquired concerned the current lack of digital equity within the research community. There is a certain reluctance that particular research communities or individuals have towards digital techniques. Yet, why people would avoid using tools that could make their research easier, faster, replicable and more statistically powerful? After all, despite the higher risk, most of us would opt for motorised transport these days rather than a horse and cart. Through cross-disciplinary discussions and peer-to-peer feedback, it became clear this reluctance didn’t stem from dislike or disinterest, but rather a lack of the right skillset and knowledge to approach digital tools. I myself was fortunate to have had enough of a digital background to take the necessary steps for my own PhD project, as some of the foundational stepping-stones had already been laid for me. For those coming from zero however, this is not so much a step as a leap of faith, and nobody likes ending up stuck in the mud. Adequate information and tailored training that speaks to these concerns, introduces researchers to the tools available, and guides them through digital services is a keystone in our aim to create a ‘DRS for everyone’. This will also be reflected in the calendar of DRS events for the upcoming academic year, and if you’re curious or keen to develop your digital skillset, then make sure to check out our webpage, and social media (X and LinkedIn) for updates and information about these events.

And so finishes my three months with DRS. A great opportunity to bring a little more attention to this fantastic service within the University, a chance to help other academics push their research into new territory, and a catalyst for changing the way I will approach research in the future. In the process, I can only hope this position has facilitated a few more bridges between various CAHSS communities within the University and the world of digital research on the other side. Hopefully, with time there will be fewer wet socks and more digital successes in the future.

Sarah Van Eyndhoven
Researcher-in-Residence
Digital Research Services

Community of Edinburgh Research Software Engineers (CERSE): Reflections on the 7th meeting

In this blog Dr Eleni Kotoula, Lead Research Facilitator at the University of Edinburgh, writes about the CERSE and their most recent event.

What is CERSE?

CERSE is a community like no other! It offers an excellent opportunity for Research Software Engineers  (RSE) to get support and recognition for their work. In addition to Research Software Engineers, the CERSE welcomes those interested in the development, use, support or management of research software. Hence, researchers, research support and research data professionals can get involved, expand their network and broaden their understanding of research software engineering. To find out more, have a look at the CERSE Meeting Handbook.

A summary of CERSE’s 7th meeting

Members of the CERSE community across Edinburgh came together earlier this month in the Bayes Centre for the first post-pandemic meeting. After a long break from activities, the organisers from the University of Edinburgh Digital Research Services, EPCC, Sofware Sustainability Institute and the Centre of Data, Culture and Society were keen to resurrect meetings.

Mario Antonioletti opened the meeting, briefly referring to the RSE movement and its previous meetings in Edinburgh. Mike Wallis, Research Services Lead at the University of Edinburgh, gave an overview of the Edinburgh Compute and Data Facility, highlighting data storage, cloud and high performance computing services. Andrew Horne provided an update on EDINA’s ongoing project for the development of Automatic Systematic Reviews. Then, Mario Antonioletti presented EPCC and services such as Archer2 and Cirrus, as well as the important work of the Software Sustainability Institute. After the short talks, Felicity Anderson, PhD candidate in Informatics and Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, led an ice-breaking activity, followed by a networking session. All presentations are available here.

Next steps

The CERSE community has the potential to grow and flourish in a region so rich in research-intensive institutions and academic excellence. We aim to continue by alternating face-to-face and virtual meetings monthly. To do so, we need active participation from those interested in the RSE community. There are different ways to get involved; attending meetings, talking about your relevant work or volunteering to help organize one of the following meetings. For us in Digital Research Facilitation, CERSE offers the opportunity to meet and connect with researchers, RSEs, IT and research support staff. Moreover, we share the same passion for best practices in data-intensive and computational research. That’s why we have been heavily involved in supporting this community in practice and strongly encourage those interested to join us. We are looking forward to meeting you in one of the following CERSE meetings, either in person or online.

How to get involved?

Join the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) mailing list: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ed-rse-community

Follow the CERSE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cerse7

Join the RSE: https://society-rse.org/join-us/

Dr Eleni Kotoula
Digital Research Facilitation