Why Should I Become a HAAG Faculty Affiliate?

Faculty love training the next generation of researchers, BUT they often struggle to find time with the many commitments necessary to maintain and build a research group. At HAAG, we know a good research program needs to be flexible to the constraints of our faculty affiliates. We handle the burdensome logistics of running a research project, so you can focus on what you do best: sharing your ideas and expertise to guide researcher to scientific innovation and insights!

Project Services (What our talent and community can do for your research!)
HAAG Researcher’s work can (and has) provide proof of concept for your grant proposals
HAAG Researcher’s work can (and has) lead to high quality publications
Recruitment Services (We bring you awesome researchers with big research goals!)
The HAAG administration team will initiate a formal recruitment process for all on-going and new contracts at the beginning of each semesters. : Faculty can request researchers at any point in a given semester and HAAG administration will advise if there is a researcher available to start immediately, or whether you would see better results waiting for the next formal recruitment phase. We try our best to be flexible to the faculty needs, but it is always best practice to flesh out your idea with a HAAG administrator first and then get your tailored recruitment at the beginning of the semester. Note, HAAG runs fall, spring, and summer, so you never need to wait THAT long.
Training and Resource Management Services (We will train you and your researchers to become more computationally confident!)
Computer Scientist build a lot of cool tools the all kinds of researchers want to use in different capacities. Often, our faculty affiliates and their labs have tools that they would like to learn to use, but might not have assess to time-sensitive, flexible training. HAAG offers technical consultations to HAAG faculty and their labs.
Feedback and Quality Control
HAAG Administration provides the following:
early-intervention and solutions for non-optimal research pairings
weekly review and guidance on projects
teaches researcher best practices for meeting preparation with collaborators

Even though many of our student researchers are new to research projects. They are by no means novice to software development. Recruiting students through the Applied Data Science Research for Social Good Course allows faculty to access researchers with extensive industry careers. HAAG is not just good for students its good for your lab!

How can I be a good mentor to students in computer science when I am not a computer science faculty members?

We often hear from new faculty that they are hesitant to join HAAG because they are concerned about their ability to mentors outside their discipline, or in a online format. We ask you to consider your career and the variety of mentors that have allowed you to become the researcher you are today. Interdisciplinary research inherently requires multiple mentors that share knowledge for the multiple disciplines that our projects are derived from. HAAG provides computational advisors through our Cross-disciplinary Leadership Education for Advanced Researchers (CLEAR) Program. Our CLEAR cohort serves as co-advisor on your projects.

I’m in! What’s Next?

The HAAG Method is a collaboration pipeline which centers the needs of the faculty collaborator while facilitating innovative learning experiences for the all participating researchers (Computational and non-computational) involved. Below we out line the key attributes of the HAAG Method:

Step 1: Creating Your Project Contract

The HAAG project initiation process involves collaborators meeting with project managers to define project scope, establish communication protocols, and create a formal contract outlining resources, data conditions, and work parameters. (Click for more …)

Scope and Design Initiation:
- New/ Continuing Faculty Collaborators may choose to meet (or otherwise communicate) with a HAAG project manager to develop the interdisplinary research project. The meeting with designate the external collaborators prefered point-of-contact which can be a themselves, their Post-Doc, their Graduate Student (with PI approval), or any other academic professional/ or staff.
- The Collaborator will be asked to provide information on the project application and desire results. The HAAG Project manager will provide the faculty with suggestions for (1) computational approaches/ tools to accomplish tasks, (2) recommended number and skillset of researcher recruitment, (3) best practices from across HAAG project (timelines, meeting frequency, successes/ failures, etc)
- Here are some examples of projects we have been contract for:
  - Analyze text in recommendation letters for gender bias
  - Automate image enhancement and landmarking for lizards
  - Produce a user-iterface for citizen scientists to analyze natural history collections
  - Detect and classify individual behavior of free-swiming cichlid fish.
  - ADD YOUR AMAZING PROJECT IDEA HERE
- For a full description of on-going projects click here
Creating your Project Contract:
- Using information provided in your communications your HAAG project manager will create a 1-2 page contract that outlines the following:
  - Scope of work to be accomplished
  - number of researchers to be recruited
  - communication and collaboration preferences
  - data accessibility and use conditions
  - Resources (computational or otherwise) provided to the researcher to complete the project scope (if applicable)
Click here for a sample project contract
Click here for our template contract

Step 2: Confirming your data and resource needs

Project managers establish data safety protocols and create resource plans for computational needs, with external collaborators having the option to provide their own resources. (Click for more …)

One or more student researcher will be assigned the project contract on the basis of availability and skill. This researcher will receive credit for their work through the OMSCS research course (More about the OMSCS research course here). The selected student(s) will be introduced to their external collaborator and communication structure will be set up by the HAAG team through the collaborator’s preferred channels.

Data Plan Creation: If the researchers will be working with sensitive lab data, the first step will be to develop a transparent data safety plan to which all researchers must adhere.
Resource Plan Creation: The Project Manager and Student Researcher (S) will develop a computational resource plan based on the scope of the work being done. The external collaborator is welcome to provide computational resources if they have available or prefer their data to be maintain on their own devices, but this is not required. This document will be maintained within the HAAG administrative team who will assist the researchers in obtaining assess to needed resources as each project progresses.

Step 3: Delegation in the Project Cycle

Masters students develop code and documentation with project manager oversight, then share results with collaborators who can provide feedback and request training, leading to new project directions based on findings.(Click here for more …)

Given a typical project contract here is how the work should be accomplished:

Code & Visualization: Master Student generates the code. Request assistance from project manager if needed.
Generate Report: Master Student generates the documentation of work done. Request assistance from project manager if needed.
Review & Revise: Code and Documentation is review by project manager. Summary of result sent to collaborator for comments or suggestions. Collaborator can request to be trained by the masters student in the analysis approaches used if they desire to learn.
Generate Project Idea: The comments from the collaborator and the project manager designate a new scope of work for the masters student based on the reported findings of their project.

Step 4: Publication Generation

Research projects aim to share findings through either methods-focused publications led by internal researchers or discipline-specific publications driven by external collaborators, with publication timing and format determined through collaborative discussions. (Click for more …)

The goals of every research project is to produce a body of work that can be shared with the greater scientific community. The external collaborator will play a role in determining when they feel the work is completed and we should move to the publication stage of the project cycle. The kind of work in this group will likely result in two kinds of publications:

Method-based publication: a Methods publication will focus on the computational techniques used to analyze the project’s data. In this case, the project manager and masters researcher will likely be the primary authors. A discussion with the external will establish the following: (1) considerations for publication ordering, (2) whether or not data will be including with the publication, (3) how involved the external collaborator would like to be in the publication generation.
Discipline-Specific Publication (by request): The collaborator might wish to use our insights to provide support for their publication. In this case, the external collaborator should request a meeting with the project manager to determine contribution and delegation of work towards the publication.

Faculty Affiliates for Transdisciplinary Expansion (FATE) program