The Data Champions were treated to a big data themed session for the March Data Champion forum, hosted at (and sponsored by) the Cambridge University Press and Assessment in their amazing Triangle building. First up was Dr James Fergusson, course director for the MPhil in Data Intensive Science, who described how the exponential growth in data accumulation, computing and artificial intelligence (A.I.) capabilities has led to a paradigm shift in the world of cosmological theorisation and research, potentially changing with it scientific research as a whole.  

As he explained, over the last two decades cosmologists have seen a rapid increase of data points on which to base their theorisation – from merely 14 data points in 2000 to 800 million data points in 2013! Through the availability of these data points, the paradigm for research in cosmology started to shift completely – from being theory based to being based on data.  With several projects beginning soon that will see vast amounts of data generated daily for decades to come, this trend is showing no signs of slowing down. The only way to cope with this exponential increase in data generation is with computing power, which has also been growing exponentially. In tandem with these sectors of growth is the growth of machine learning (ML) capabilities as the copious amount of data not only necessitates immense amounts of computing power but also ML capabilities to process and analyse all of the data. Together, these elements are fundamentally changing the story of scientific discovery. What was once a story of an individual researcher having an intellectual breakthrough is becoming the story of machine led, automated discovery. While it used to be the case that an idea, put through the rigour of the scientific method, would lead to the generation of data, now the reverse is not only possible but become increasingly likely. Data is now generated first before a theory is discovered, and the discovery may come from AI and not a scientist. This, for James, can be considered the new scientific method. 

Dr Anne Alexander has been familiarising herself with AI, especially in her capacity as Director of Learning at Cambridge Digital Humanities (CDH) where she has been incorporating critique of AI into a methodology of research in the digital humanities, particularly in the area of Critical Pedagogy. In her work, Anne addresses how structural inequalities can be reinforced, rather than challenged by AI systems. She demonstrated this through two projects that she was involved with at CDH. One was called Ghost Fictions, a series of workshops with the aim of encouraging critical thinking about automated text generation using AI methods both in scholarly work and in social life. The project resulted in a (free to download) book titled Ghost, Robots, Automatic Writing: an AI level study guide, which was intended as a provocation of a future where books, study guides and examinations are created by Large Language Models (LLM) (perhaps a not so distant future). Another project involved using AI to create characters for a new novel, which revealed the racial biases of ChatGPT when prompted with certain names. Yet, perhaps the most worrying aspect about the transformative forms of AI is the immediate and consequential impact it has on the environment. The computational power needed to quench the thirst for the exponential amounts of data needed to train and progress AI chat bots, LLMs and image generation systems, requires vast computing power which in turn generates a lot of heat and requires large amounts of water to operate. As Anne demonstrated, this could be increasingly problematic for many places as the global climate crisis continues. Locally, we have the case of West Cambridge, which is already water stressed, but also home to the University’s data centre and where the new DAWN AI supercomputer is located. Through these examples, she posed the questions: does AI perpetuate further harm and inequality? Are the environmental costs of AI too high?    

The themes that Anne concluded her presentation with formed the basis of the Q&A between the Data Champions and the speakers. The topic of the potential biases of AI and ML was put forward to James who agreed that his field of study could not escape it. That said, unlike the humanities, biases in physics can potentially be helpful as it may help make the scientific process as objective as possible. However, this could clearly be problematic for humanities research, which tends to deal with social systems and relations, and views of the world. The topic of the environmental cost of AI was also touched on, with which James commented that energy insufficiency is a problem and getting harder to justify, and solutions might only create new problems as the demand for this technology is not slowing down. Anne expressed her concerned and suggests that society at large should be consulted on this as the environment is a social problem thus society should have a say on what risk they are willing to be a part of. The question of the automation of science was also raised to James who admitted that preparing early career physicists for research now involves developing their software skills rather than subject knowledge expertise in physics or mathematics. 

Valentine’s day week for the international data community is not only a time for expressing your love to the significant others in your life. As it is also Love Data Week, it is also a time to reflect on your love for all things data! That was the goal for the Research Data team this year! The theme of this year’s Love Data Week was “My Kind of Data”, suggesting that data workers – researchers and analysts alike – have a relationship to data that is personal, often idiosyncratic, and almost always heartfelt. The Research Data team, as supporters of the University’s researchers, are interested in such relationships and are always eager to discover the distinctive needs that the disciplinary differences between the University’s departments create. This year, the Research Data team decided that they wanted to find out from students and researchers from the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) what was their kind of data.

To do so, the Research Data team positioned themselves at the Foyer of the Alison Richard Building on the University’s Sidgwick Site, which is home to several AHSS departments, for two mornings on Monday the 12^th and Thursday the 15^th of February. Across the city, Data Champion Lizzie Sparrow was leading the charge with science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEMM) students and researchers by holding her own pop-up at the West Hub. Like the Research Data team, and as a Research Support Librarian (Engineering) herself, Lizzie is also interested in the relationships that researchers have with data. Her approach, however, would likely be different. Unlike researchers in the STEMM subjects, the term data for AHSS students and researchers can sometimes feel exclusionary as they may not consider what they generate through research as data. From our perspective on the other hand, any material that goes on to form any part of their research is one’s data. To bring attention to this, the team tried to engage passers-by with the provocation “you have research data, change our minds!” The provocation was successful and many conversations were had on the different ways that members of the Sidgwick community understood data in their research.

The team was pleased to find that there was a general interest in the services of the Research Data team among the Sidgwick community, and we were happy to be able to share with others how we can help them with their data management and planning.

The team tried to capture the sentiments of the conversations had by asking the Sidgwick community to partake in 2 short activities as they departed our pop-up to better understand  their relationship with data (in exchange for Love Hearts sweets!). Firstly, we asked them to describe to us what data was to them, a question that we are extremely fond of asking! As usual, the answers were informative and they helped us to gain a sense of the varying data types that the Sidgwick community worked with – from political tracts and archival materials to balance sheets and land deeds from the early modern era.

For the second activity, we asked them what term best captured the materials that formed the basis of their scholarly work: data, research materials, or other? To our surprise, the majority of people we spoke to over both days saw themselves as working with data, more than double the number that saw themselves working with research materials, with a small number seeing themselves as working with both, interchangeably. This finding illustrated something that has been increasingly discussed in the Research Data team office: that finding alternatives to the term data may make our services and initiatives more appealing to members of the AHSS community. This is something we will take into account when targeting our outreach in the future. Yet, one thing is certain – our Research Data services are needed by the AHSS community just as much as it is by the STEMM community.

The pop-ups at the Alison Richard building were encouraging and it is hoped that fruitful relationships will transpire from these events. This is something that we may hold again soon. It was a good way to communicate our message and make others aware of the services of the Research Data team. Over at the West Hub Lizzie was not as encouraged, having only managed to have in depth chats with a couple of people. She reported that lots of people were very determinedly on their way somewhere and not up for stopping to talk. The time and/or location did not seem right for the intended audience. I suppose, we shouldn’t stand in between a student and their food. In any case, there were lots to take away from this Love Data Week pop-ups, and lots to reflect when we plan for our next pop-up, be it for Love Data Week 2025 or just as a periodic service to the research community here at Cambridge. Perhaps when the weather is nicer in the summer, we will do a pop-up outdoors in the middle of the Sidgwick site, or at research events throughout the University. If you have any ideas on where it would be good for us to hold such a pop-up, do let us know!