Top (l. to r.): Paul Gries, Adam Hammond, David Liu, Tomomi Parins-Fukuchi; bottom (l. to r.): Michael Widener, Nathan Taback, Mary Pugh.
The prestigious Northrop Frye Award, one of the university’s Awards of Excellence, has been bestowed on the Interdisciplinary Data Science Course Development Team for the creation of three introductory data science courses for students across the faculty — particularly students without a traditional computational or quantitative background.
The team, which includes seven instructors from the humanities, social sciences, life and mathematical sciences, combined their disciplinary and pedagogical expertise to create learning experiences that give students skills applicable to any career, that nurture a critical approach to problems, and that equip them to think outside traditional methods of analysis. The results are innovative courses designed to prepare students to tackle today’s complex challenges.
The courses are: ENG286H1 — Literature and Data; GGR274H — Introductory Computation and Data Science for the Social Sciences; and EEB125H1 — Introductory Computation and Data Science for the Life and Physical Sciences.
The team includes:
Professor Paul Gries, Teaching Stream, Computer Science
Associate Professor Adam Hammond, English
Professor David Liu, Teaching Stream, Computer Science
Professor Tomomi Parins-Fukuchi, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Professor Mary Pugh, Mathematics
Professor Nathan Taback, Teaching Stream, Statistical Sciences
Professor Michael Widener, Geography & Planning
The initiative emerged from the Faculty of Arts & Science Computational and Data Studies Working Group that was established to address growing student demand for computational and data-related learning beyond the departments of Computer Science and Statistical Sciences.
U of T’s Awards of Excellence program has recognized exceptional students, faculty, librarians and administrative staff members since 1921. Though the criteria differ for each of the awards in the suite, recipients all share a commitment to enhancing the university experience of their peers and leave a significant impact on the university through their efforts.
“The award recognizes a deeply interdisciplinary and sustained collaboration that has transformed how students across Arts & Science encounter computation and data analysis,” says Karen Reid, professor, teaching stream in the Department of Computer Science, who nominated the team.
“The sustained impact on student learning, combined with the team’s deep interdisciplinary collaboration and commitment to pedagogical innovation, exemplifies the values recognized by the Northrop Frye Award.”
According to Faculty of Arts & Science vice dean, undergraduate Randy Boyagoda, “These three courses demonstrate that when data science education is designed intentionally — grounded in accessibility, interdisciplinarity and ethical awareness — students from across the faculty eagerly and successfully engage with it.
"Students who take these courses will leave university with greater confidence in knowing how data science works, which will matter to their personal and professional lives and make them all the more willing and able to be good contributors to our shared public life,” says Boyagoda, who is also the university’s provostial advisor on civil discourse and a professor in the Department of English.
The success and impact of the team’s work is reflected in a typical student’s feedback: “With its intersection with computer science and traditional English studies, ENG286 prepared me to think about how developing technologies such as AI and an ever-expanding digital marketplace and database can both enrich traditional legal views while also criticizing and promoting new ways to view precedents.”