DATA SERVICES

Bits and Bytes

August 2025

Hello Data Enthusiast,

Welcome to the Fall 2025 semester! We hope you had a wonderful summer and are eager to explore the world through data with us. You can always read about the many ways Data Services supports researchers at NYU by visiting our website, but here are the latest highlights:

FORC Camp is underway!

Students sitting in a large classroom with three large screens and a speaker at the front of the room.

Photo Credit: NYU Data Services

Our annual FORC (Foundations of Research Computing) camp is under way! We hope you enjoyed our FORC keynote (pictured above) by data nutritionist Kasia Chmielinsky on the topic of “Human Responsibility in the Age of AI,” which was held on Tuesday.

It’s not too late to join us for our research showcase, FORC Fair, happening today (August 27th) at the new SPARK Lab @ Digital Studio on the 5th floor of Bobst Library from 3:00-4:00 pm. You can register to attend at the FORC Fair web page. In addition to featuring the new offerings at SPARK Lab, the fair will present opportunities to match with partners who can provide data science skills and learn about new projects in geospatial analysis, data science, and more.

Data Services Fall Tutorials

Circular diagram with six different colored sections (from a shade of red, to shades of purple and blue): Plan, Acquire, Process, Analyze, Output, Preserve and

Photo Credit: NYU Data Services

The Data Services fall class offerings have arrived! Browse our full list of classes and register now while seats are still available. Learn a new programming language, build your abilities in analysis software, sharpen your data management skills, learn how to find data for your next project, and get a better sense of what computing resources NYU has to offer. We look forward to seeing you in one of our upcoming tutorials.

Not sure what Data Services does or how we can help? Join us for an Introduction to Data Services at Bobst Library, free sessions where you can meet some of our team, hear about our services, and ask us all of your questions. These will be in-person sessions in Room 619 of Bobst Library (6th Floor) on Thursday September 4 from 4-5pm and Thursday September 16 from 3-4pm. Register using the links above and check out the NYU Libraries calendar for more free events.

Different colored gears, circuits, and bars on a blue background with Datapalooza and NYU Dibner Library logos on top.

Datapalooza @ Dibner Library

For all our Dibner Library patrons, we have an exciting fall semester coming up! Look out for various workshops at Dibner, starting with Datapalooza, which will feature introductory Data Services workshops along with the first session of a five-week Machine Learning Clinic series. Datapalooza will be held from September 8th to 11th at Dibner Library in Room LC433. For more information on upcoming events at our Brooklyn campus, keep an eye out on the NYU Libraries calendar.

Two people sitting at a table near large windows looking at a laptop together; one has long hair and a white top with long sleeves, the other has shoulder length hair with a dark top with long sleeves.

Open Knowledge Digital Scholarship Workshops

NYU Libraries’ Open Knowledge subdivision invites you to explore their dynamic workshop series designed to empower your research, teaching, and creative projects. Discover practical tools, hands-on techniques, and innovative approaches. Topics include an introduction to the Manifold Creative Publishing Platform, A Humanist’s Intro to VS Code and GitHub, making static sites for Digital Humanities projects and more! Search for Digital Scholarship in NYU Libraries’ calendar to see the full program and register.

Featured Data

What's New in UltraViolet

UltraViolet is part of a suite of repositories at NYU that provide a home for research materials. Data Services helps NYU researchers prepare their materials for deposit in UltraViolet to facilitate open access and long-term preservation. One of the ways that UltraViolet seeks to assist researchers is in contending with large-scale data for which it can be hard to find a home because of its size.

This month our featured dataset is from a team led by PhD candidate Animesh Basak Chowdhury at the NYU Center for Cybersecurity. The dataset, which encompasses over a terabyte of files plus code and documentation, provides a basis for machine learning to optimize integrated circuit design. In publishing the data the UltraViolet team relied on its approach of using the Globus data transfer system to serve up the large files. You can read more about the project in its published preprint on arXiv, and visit its home on UltraViolet.

Data in the Library

Historical Statistics of the United State is a source for downloadable quantitative data that pertains to America's past. Topics of data range from migration and health to crime and the Confederate States of America. Users can access reports, essays, and extract data into Excel tables.

Data Services Team Spotlight: Ruiting Shen

Photo of student specialist Ruiting Shen.

Photo Credit: Ruiting Shen

Q. What's your name, program, and year?
My name is Ruiting, and I am a second-year master’s student at the A3SR (Applied Statistics for Social Science Research Program).

Q. What's your service area at Data Services and how long have you worked here?
I’ve been working as a data management student specialist since the beginning of summer 2025.

Q. What do you like most about working at Data Services?
I love working with all the smart people from different service areas - there are times we consult with each other when we get stuck in our projects. And teaching classes for my service area also makes me excited! I also love the data resources provided to us, which I can’t wait to tell some interesting stories about.

Q. Describe your favorite data-related project that you've worked on.
I really enjoy the project I’m working on at Data Services right now. We’re building an automated pipeline to process data on NYU’s HPC and get insights from a huge dataset, L2 Political, which includes voting histories and demographic information from states across multiple years. The scripts will also be made publicly available soon on a GitHub repository!

Q. What's your favorite place to get a meal or a snack near Bobst Library?
The Mexican-Peruvian food truck right in front of Bobst is great (and they’re ALWAYS there)! A great place for a quick lunch/snack on a busy day :)

Did you miss one of our newsletters?

Don’t worry! You can always find our archive of past Bits and Bytes newsletters here. Thanks for reading! We hope to see you soon either on the 5th floor at Bobst or online.

- Your friends at Data Services

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