Spring 2024 Syllabus - The Data Mine Corporate Partners

Check out our staff welcome page to see the team that supports The Data Mine

The Data Mine Team uses a shared email which functions as a ticketing system. Using a shared email helps the team manage the influx of questions, better distribute questions across the team, and send out faster responses.

Send your questions to datamine-help@purdue.edu

Use this table to send your questions to the most appropriate email. If you’re not sure who to ask, navigate to the Questions page for more details.

Your Corporate Partner Mentor(s) are employees of the company you are working with. You will meet once a week with them online (unless the company is in West Lafayette, IN or visiting Purdue for a meeting). Please treat all communication with them in a professional manner – they are like your supervisor during an internship. They also act as a product owner and can help to answer questions or find resources for any product specific questions that you have during the project.

Our Corporate Partner TAs will serve as peer mentors and team leaders for each of our projects. Nearly all of our CRP TAs have been in The Data Mine Corporate Partners program in past years and many are returning to the same project. The CRP TAs will lead the weekly student meeting (lab – 2 hours) when you are not meeting with the Corporate Partner Mentor(s). Your CRP TA should also be the first person to go to when you have a technical question or questions about your project.

The data scientists employed by The Data Mine are here to help students with the technical topics and concepts that they will encounter during their projects. The data scientist team has a varied background in topics such as natural language processing (NLP), geospatial information systems (GIS), high performance computing, and machine learning.

If you have a question for a member of the Data Science team, please email datamine-help@purdue.edu and your question will be answered by a member of the Data Science Team. If our doors are open, you can drop by and ask for help. They will bring in other members of the team as needed. They are here to help so don’t be worried when asking questions!

When scheduling a meeting with a data scientist keep in mind that they are designed to be collaborative. The team wants to see any solutions that you’ve attempted and where you may be getting stuck. Also, for more complicated questions it helps to give some advance notice of the topics over email. We aren’t experts in all of data science and some research may be required.

The Data Mine staff offer office hours by request. Please email datamine-help@purdue.edu if you need to request a meeting. Students are always welcome to stop by staff offices Monday - Friday in Convergence located at 101 Foundry Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47906.

50-minute team meeting

This meeting will occur synchronously online via MS Teams unless your Corporate Partner Mentors are located in West Lafayette or visiting campus. Online links are shared via a calendar invite at the beginning of the year. You can join this meeting from anywhere, but please follow the “net-etiquette” guidelines to find a quiet space.

1 hour 50-minute student labs

This meeting will occur in person for all teams except for National Data Mine Students which will occur virtually for all teams. This is dedicated work time with your team members to collaborate on your project and to work as a larger group or as sub-teams. The meetings will be held in Hillenbrand Residence Hall (HILL) at 1301 Third Street, West Lafayette, IN 47906 or Shreve Residence Hall (SHRV) at 1275 3rd Street, West Lafayette, IN 47906 unless otherwise noted.

We do NOT accept late work, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Extenuating circumstances do NOT include:

It is better to submit a partially done report than nothing at all. Partial credit can be earned for work turned in on time. The electronic submission systems also do not allow for late work.

This is a research-type, project-based course, so the majority of your grade for the semester will be determined holistically based on work with Corporate Partners in addition to reports and other assignments per the schedule. Students will receive their own individual grade, but the success of the group will be a component of that individual grade.

It is very important to check your @purdue.edu email, Brightspace, Gradescope, and The Examples Book pages frequently! Please review the schedule. More details for each assignment will be available in The Examples Book.

Due dates are listed in the semester schedule.

You will need to complete the tasks detailed on each sprint page. The first sprint is covered here: Sprint 1. Additional tasks specific to your project will be discussed with your CRP Mentor, TA, and team.

On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm there will be a Corporate Partners Symposium at France A. Córdova Recreational Sports Center to showcase the work you have done throughout the year to corporate partner mentors and guests. All Corporate Partner students will be required to attend the symposium presentation to present their work. More details will be forthcoming and posted in The Examples Book.

The Data Mine does not conduct an exam during the final exam period. Therefore, Corporate Partner Courses are not required to follow the Quiet Period in the Academic Calendar.

This course will follow the 90-80-70-60 grading scale for A, B, C, D cut-offs. If you earn a 90.000 in the class, for example, that is a solid A. +/- grades will be given at the instructor’s discretion below these cut-offs. If you earn an 89.11 in the class, for example, this may be an A- or a B depending on the course grade distribution at the end of the semester.

This course permits you, the student to participate in a class project that has been sponsored by a third party other than the University. The University encourages and supports your participation in this practical learning experience. Although your course requirements may include a practical learning project, you are not required to participate in a project that is sponsored by an outside third party. Prior to your participation in a project sponsored by an outside third party, we would like you to carefully consider that your participation (i) may require you to assign your intellectual property (IP) rights to any intellectual property for which a student would retain ownership under the University’s Policy I.A.1 on Intellectual Property and/or (ii) may require you sign a non-disclosure (confidentiality) agreement with the sponsor. If you sign an agreement regarding intellectual property rights or a non-disclosure agreement, you may incur personal liability (with respect to a breach of a non- disclosure agreement) or you may lose economic benefits associated with your ownership of intellectual property (with respect to a license or assignment of intellectual property). You are encouraged to retain independent legal counsel for advice on these types of agreements. In addition, if you choose not to sign a non-disclosure or intellectual property rights agreement, you may be reassigned to a different project or you may not be able to participate in The Data Mine Corporate Partners.

It is important to note that you are working on real-world problems that your Corporate Partner is trying to solve. These projects weren’t created as busywork to keep you occupied for 9 months; you have the opportunity to make a real impact with your Corporate Partner. Past work from Data Mine students has been put into production code!

With that being said, the work you do and the data you have access to must be kept fully confidential! Nearly all Corporate Partner students will be required to sign an NDA and/or IP agreement with the company. Even if you do not have to sign an NDA for your project, please keep the project details private. While each NDA will have unique terms, some basics include:

As the world of machine learning, deep learning, and AI continues to evolve we wanted to offer some guidance on The Data Mine’s perspective for generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT.

New emergent technologies can be incredibly valuable tools. However, at the same time it’s important to keep perspective on how and when we utilize these new systems.

When using ChatGPT (or other generative AI) on a Data Mine project:

As with any new technologies, the world of generative AI is changing quickly. We encourage open discussion and welcome any feedback to The Data Mine concerning these technologies.

This course follows Purdue University Academic Regulations regarding class attendance, which states that students are expected to be present for every meeting of the classes in which they are enrolled. For the purposes of this course, being “present” means attending all face-to-face meetings and all online meetings, unless you are ill or need to be absent for reasons excused by University regulations: grief/bereavement, military service, jury duty, parenting leave or emergent medical care. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class and lateness will be noted.

Regardless if your absence is planned or unplanned, excused or unexcused, please notify your TA as soon as possible and work with them to catch up on missed information and work.

You are expected to behave in a way that promotes a welcoming, inclusive, productive learning environment. You need to be prepared for your individual and group work each week, and you need to include everybody in your group in any discussions. Respond promptly to all communications and show up for any appointments that are scheduled. If your group is having trouble working well together, try hard to talk through the difficulties—this is an important skill to have for future professional experiences. If you are still having difficulties, ask The Data Mine staff to meet with your group. Visit the Student Code of Conduct page to understand expectations on “Net-etiquette,” dress-code, in-person meetings, meal etiquette, work expectations, networking expectations, written communication, and time management.