Being an early career professional, I am still comparatively new to the world of data services and practices. The RDAP Summit 2024 gave me an amazing opportunity to learn about the said world by enhancing my understanding of the latest trends in interoperability and giving me an introduction to the community.
As a current Data Management Program Assistant in the University of Illinois-Chicago Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, I have the privilege of collaborating with a diverse range of university researchers in supporting ethical and secure data management and sharing practices. Thus, I was particularly excited to expand the knowledge directly related to my skills. As such, Zixin Nie’s presentation on PIIs has provided a valuable framework to identify privacy risks within the data. I found this presentation very informative as I might have to help researchers catch these risks in my role.
Additionally, coming from a technical background, I was very inspired by presenters introducing technology solutions to research data problems. For instance, Chreston Miller and LaDale Winling from Virginia Tech gave a very insightful presentation on how NLP technology can be used to identify patterns of racial discrimination in text documents. Furthermore, I was very impressed by Talya Cooper and Vicky Rampin’s project, which addresses a very acute problem and creates an ecosystem to preserve both software and its documentation as key elements of reproducibility. Working on my own code, as well as assisting researchers in the safe deposit of their software, I was always concerned about the systems we currently have in place, so this project makes me very hopeful about new solutions.
Finally, I think what I most enjoyed about the Summit was the community aspect. I highly appreciated all the questions and comments the participant left as well as the opportunities to network. Despite being held virtually I could feel everyone’s eagerness to learn and share knowledge.
Overall, the RDAP Summit was a highly inspiring and informative experience. I am very grateful to everyone who made this Summit possible for this wonderful opportunity!
