The Open Scholarship Commons Community Fellows Workshop Series is a paid fellowship opportunity for graduate students underrepresented in the field of open scholarship. The goal of this Fellowship is to lift up students as experts in this field and create opportunities for peer to peer learning by offering student-led workshops. Equity is a core value of the UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons, and this Fellowship, funded and co-administered by the UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons and the eScience Institute, aims to support the expertise and leadership of underrepresented students in the field of open scholarship.
2024-2025 Open Scholarship Commons Community Fellows
Git for Everyone!
Thursday, May 8th 1:00-2:00pm
Open scholarship thrives on transparency, collaboration, and accessibility. Whether you’re managing code, manuscripts, or digital art, this hands-on workshop introduces Git as a tool for version control and open research. You’ll learn how to track changes, collaborate with others using GitHub/GitLab, and structure your work for transparency and reproducibility.
Open to researchers and creators across disciplines—from STEM to humanities to the arts—this session offers practical skills to improve project organization, documentation, and public sharing. No technical background required.
Please bring your work laptop if you can, or use one of our machines.
Rose Xu
Rose Xu is a new media artist and researcher who works at the intersection of human movement, technology, and creative research. She holds a BA in Math and Dance from Bard College, an MPhil in Data Intensive Science from University of Cambridge, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her work explores how computational tools can support not only scientific research, but also creative practices across disciplines. She brings a hands-on, inclusive approach to teaching, and is passionate about making open-source tools accessible to all researchers and makers.
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Understanding Carbon Output and AI’s Role in Sustainability
Thursday, May 8th 4:00-5:00pm
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives, its environmental impact grows in tandem. This workshop, Understanding Carbon Output and AI’s Role in Sustainability, explores the intersection of cutting-edge AI technologies and global carbon emissions. Participants will examine how deep learning models can both contribute to and help mitigate CO2 output, and will engage with practical tools like carbon credit tracking and exchange platforms.
The global food system contributes to over one-third of carbon emissions, making consumer awareness a vital part of climate solutions. In this session, Cynthia will share findings from a mixed-method study involving both survey experiments and sentiment analysis to investigate the effectiveness of carbon labels in nudging sustainable behavior.
The workshop will also introduce Unoco, an innovative AI tool that predicts carbon emissions of products using solar-powered deep learning models. Cynthia will explore how emerging technologies like this can support more transparent and impactful environmental communication.
No prior knowledge required— just a willingness to learn and share.
Cynthia Hong
Cynthia Hong holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Data Science from the University of Washington and is currently pursuing a master’s in the track of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at the UW Information School. She has worked with the Entropy Network’s Circularity initiative, collaborating with Forrest, Fabian, and Jesse to advance regenerative systems, carbon data transparency, and innovative applications of AI in climate action. Her work focuses on leveraging deep learning models to monitor and reduce carbon emissions, as well as developing educational tools and policy-aligned technologies to promote sustainability. Cynthia also works at Sphere, a marketplace for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) data that connects AI applications with high-quality, licensable datasets. She is grateful for the opportunity to explore how AI can be thoughtfully applied to support sustainability and broader societal impact.
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Harnessing the Power of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Jupyter Notebooks for Modern Applications
Manpreet Kaur
Tuesday, April 29th 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
This workshop will focus on using Large Language Models (LLMs) within Jupyter Notebooks to unlock their potential in modern research and applications. It will provide a hands-on tutorial on integrating LLMs using open libraries like Hugging Face Transformers, constructing effective prompts, processing model outputs, and deploying these tools for real-world tasks such as text summarization, natural language querying of datasets, and code generation. Participants will gain practical insights into incorporating LLMs into their workflows, even without extensive AI expertise.
This topic is especially important in today’s world because LLMs are transforming how we interact with data, conduct research, and solve problems. However, their potential often remains underutilized due to misconceptions about complexity or resource requirements. By leveraging the open and user-friendly environment of Jupyter Notebooks, this workshop reduces barriers to entry and empowers participants to integrate LLMs into their research processes.
The workshop also emphasizes responsible AI use, addressing issues like bias, fairness, and ethical considerations in deploying LLMs. This perspective is critical in ensuring these powerful tools contribute to equitable and inclusive advancements in academia and beyond. Participants will leave with actionable knowledge and skills, along with a greater appreciation for the impact of LLMs in open scholarship and their potential applications across disciplines.
Through this initiative, I aim to democratize access to cutting-edge AI technology, fostering a community of learners equipped to innovate responsibly in today’s rapidly evolving landscape.
No prior experience with machine learning is required—just a basic familiarity with Python is helpful. Please bring your laptop if possible; devices are available if needed.
Manpreet Kaur
Manpreet Kaur is a graduate student in Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Washington Bothell, with a strong focus on machine learning, natural language processing, and responsible AI. She brings experience as a software engineer and research assistant, with a passion for making cutting-edge technologies more accessible and impactful across disciplines. Her current work explores the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) in practical research workflows, emphasizing transparency, usability, and ethical considerations. Manpreet is committed to fostering inclusive learning environments and empowering others to harness AI for open, collaborative, and responsible innovation.
Call for Applicants for the 2024-2025 Open Scholarship Commons Community Fellows Cohort
Information Session: November 18, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Application deadline: January 12
This paid Fellowship over Winter and Spring quarters offers graduate students, underrepresented in the field of open scholarship, funding and mentorship to take existing research and/or research communication skills to develop a workshop on an open scholarship topic of their choice. Students will receive a stipend of $250 following completion of their workshop lesson plan by the end of Winter quarter and $500 following the delivery of their workshop in spring quarter. Stipends post as departmental scholarships to your student account.
It is expected that Fellows will spend approximately 20 hours over the course of the Fellowship program meeting other Fellows through an initial kickoff meeting, developing and refining drafts of their workshop, meeting with program mentors, and offering/attending Fellows dress rehearsals. Workshops will be delivered in person in the Open Scholarship Commons for an audience of up to 25 attendees. Workshop length is expected to be between 60-90 minutes and will be recorded and shared on the Libraries’ YouTube channel.
This Fellowship opportunity is a welcoming space for those new to teaching. Between mentorship opportunities, instruction on creating an interactive workshop, and a workshop dress rehearsal, we provide many supports along the way.
Fall quarter:
- November 4: Applications open
- November 18, 3:00-4:00 p.m.: Information Session on the OSC Community Fellows Program
Winter quarter:
- January 12: Application deadline
- January: Fellows will attend a Fellowship kickoff meeting
- February: Fellows will meet with their mentors and exchange drafts of lesson plans for feedback
- End of quarter: Lesson plans will be completed
Spring quarter:
- March: Fellows will offer dress rehearsal of their workshop for the Fellowship cohort, Fellowship administrators, and Fellowship mentors
- Late April/early May: Final Fellowship presentations will be offered
Open scholarship example topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:
- AI & Open Scholarship: How does AI affect the way we do research, work with data, and use tools? Share ideas and experiences in situating AI tools relative to the work of open scholarship.
- Community engaged scholarship: Developing research with community can be an important tool towards solving today’s global problems. Share your best practices and tips for identifying and establishing working relationships with community, ethics of shared governance with community members, crowdsourcing strategies, etc.
- Research communication (e.g. storytelling, data visualization, writing for the general public, improvisation techniques, etc.): Sharing and communicating research to broad audiences is an important part of the research lifecycle. Share your tips and expertise for telling the story of your research
- Workshop an open source software or tool to efficiently process or share research (e.g. open refine, Jupyter, WordPress, etc.)
- Accessibility: Work is never truly open if it can’t be accessed, read, and/or viewed by all. Share best practices you use to ensure accessibility of your research or in evaluating tools to use as part of your research process.
- Open/distributed leadership best practices: Much of open work requires shared leadership and governance. What best practices, tips, or techniques do you have to share in this area? Sustaining open source projects. Reward structures in open work that build and foster community.
- Privacy: Working in the open can come with tradeoffs in the area of privacy. Share ideas for evaluating/monitoring your own privacy, communicating in ways that protect privacy, or favorite privacy tools.
- Education: How can open scholarship tools and practices be used in the classroom and in instructional design?
2023-2024 Open Scholarship Commons Community Fellows
We are pleased to announce the Fellows selected for the inaugural OSC Community Fellows Workshop Series, funded by the UW Diversity Council and the eScience Institute!
I’m Pratik Jadhav, currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Washington. Originally from Pune, India, I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering with honors in Data Science from Savitribai Phule Pune University. I possess a versatile skill set covering programming languages, databases, and developer tools. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Washington, I support professors and improve course clarity by developing assignment rubrics and grading assignments effectively. Previously, I worked as a Software Engineer at eQ Technologic, where I developed innovative software solutions, such as a multi-location activity upload feature, reducing user navigation time by 30%. Additionally, I contributed to projects enhancing product scalability and reducing user support queries. Currently, I’m actively involved in a research project focusing on Toxicity Detection in Twitch using Large Language Models and several other language models. This project underscores my commitment to leveraging technology for social good and advancing the field of natural language processing. My project portfolio includes impactful initiatives like movie data analysis, a Marathi Text & Speech Sentiment Analyzer, and a Fake News Detection System. Outside of academia, I’ve held leadership roles in student communities, fostering collaboration and driving positive change.
Workshop: Building Dynamic Websites with WordPress
This workshop will be tailored to empower participants, including those with minimal coding experience, to harness the potential of WordPress for creating versatile and dynamic websites. Participants will be guided through the fundamental aspects of WordPress, covering everything from setting up a WordPress site and creating engaging content to customizing themes, implementing essential plugins, ensuring responsiveness and accessibility, and optimizing websites for performance. The workshop’s hands-on approach positions participants to excel in the ever-evolving digital landscape where WordPress skills are highly sought after for creating impactful online presences.
Paul Jason Perez (he/him) is currently a Ph.D. student in information science at the University of Washington Information School. His research interests include Community Archiving, Information Infrastructures, Digital Libraries, and the Web. Before coming to the UW iSchool, Paul worked as an Assistant Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of the Philippines. He also consulted for various government and non-profit organizations, especially on projects involving the development of digital preservation programs. Visit more of his works or reach out to him at https://pjperez.xyz
Workshop: Building Sustainable Digital Projects
This workshop uses CollectionBuilder to discuss issues on the Sustainability of Digital Projects, in particular, of Digital Collections such as Digital Libraries, Digital Archives, and Digital Exhibits. Participants will do hands-on activities on setting up their own websites through GitHub, describing their collections using Google Sheets, and personalizing their digital collections.
Ather is a Ph.D. candidate at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. His research focuses broadly on human-computer interaction and specifically on the intersection of accessibility, visualization, and personalization. The main objective of his dissertation work is to make online data visualizations accessible to screen-reader users. Additionally, he is a Software Engineer, Founder of EvoXLabs, and the interim Chair of the Executive Board of Disability Empowerment Center.
Workshop: Accessibility of Online Data Visualizations
Online data visualizations are used widely by content creators to communicate information, enabling users to obtain summaries, recognize patterns, and explore oddities in data that may be challenging to determine from a data table. However, the defining visual nature of data visualizations makes these visualizations inaccessible to screen-reader users, significantly disenfranchising them from accessing online information (e.g., COVID-19 data). This workshop will facilitate an understanding of the challenges screen-reader users face with online data visualizations, identify ways to make online data visualizations accessible and understand the pros and cons of each, and share possible nuances and future avenues of thinking accessibility outside of the standard solutions.
Yubing Tian is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington’s Information School. Her dissertation investigates the impact of U.S. data sharing and open data policies on the data management practices of oceanographers through empirical qualitative methods. In addition, her work investigates the ways that time and labor-intensive data management practices presents challenges for data sharing and long-term preservation. Her goal is for her research to inform science policy and the design of scholarly communication infrastructures such as data repositories.
Workshop: Best Practices for Sharing Qualitative Interview Data: wrestling with epistemological, curatorial, and ethical considerations
This workshop aims to help attendees working with interview data, or planning to conduct interviews, learn about ways to share their interview data whilst considering epistemological, curatorial, and ethical questions about sharing qualitative interview data with wider audiences.