MAINE: Barracuda continues the recent tradition of Maine EPSCoR grants partnering with Upward Bound
Biodiversity and Rural Response to Climate Change Using Data Analysis (Barracuda) – made possible through an NSF four-year, $4M (RII Track-2 FEC) grant – has partnered with the Upward Bound program at the University of Maine.
Upward Bound, a US Department of Education grant, creates opportunities for high school students from lower income and first-generation college-going backgrounds to gain academic skills as well as soft skills needed to prepare and be successful in college. Barracuda’s workforce development component focuses on the development of an interdisciplinary data science curriculum to build data skills in various areas such as ecology, specifically looking at high school students as they enter an undergrad program.
Matthew Dube, Assistant Professor in Computer Information Systems and Data Science at the University of Maine Augusta as well as Co-PI of the Barracuda project, is shepherding Barracuda’s work force development component that focuses on the development of an interdisciplinary data science curriculum to build data skills in various areas such as ecology, specifically looking at high school students as they enter an undergraduate program in this iteration.
Dube continues, “The purpose of doing grants like this for the public is to try to build that infrastructure and capacity for people to see how things like data science are meaningful and what they can do for you.”