MATCHPOINT is a service intended to facilitate collaborations between domain experts (medical researchers, biologists, sociologists, etc.) and methods experts (data scientists, statisticians, computer scientists, etc.).
The goal is to take projects from the "idea" phase to the "initial results, applying for a grant" phase. As such, there is no assumption that funding is already available. This is compensated for by the fact that there is a large number of MSc. students in CSE and ECE that are interested in doing projects and thesis in data science, even without pay.
Experience shows that the main challenges along this path are:
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Finding a methods student with the required knowledge.
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Defining a clear goal for the project.
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Providing sufficient feedback to the methods students.
To minimize these challenges, we define the following process, which is managed through MATCHPOINT:
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A domain expert fills in a form with the project description through the site under "new" projects. They will need to create a login on the site.
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A methods expert searches for projects and finds the domain expert.
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The methods expert contacts the domain expert to see if they are a match.
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Experts specify a narrow/detailed evaluation plan and add it to the site.
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The domain expert adds the methods expert to the project table and moves it to "seeded" projects with the evaluation plan.
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Domain and methods students apply to join projects through the site, with preferred projects.
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[Outside the site] experts interview students and choose.
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Projects move to "ongoing" status and get carried out.
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Outcomes:
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Minimum: MSc. Thesis
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Best case: peer-reviewed paper, grant proposals
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