Ag Data Services Graduate Research Fellowship

Program dates:    August 2024 – July 2025

Appointment type: Half time graduate student research assistantship
Eligibility:  Must currently be enrolled in a Masters or Ph.D. program in College of Agriculture, Purdue University

Position description: 

Much of the College of Agriculture’s field crop and animal research is conducted at the Purdue Agricultural Centers (PACs) and the Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE). These locations serve as field research stations and demonstration sites for cutting edge production practices and agricultural technologies. During the course of this program, the student will work with agricultural center superintendents and staff to support their data collection and curation efforts, helping streamline the process of getting valuable data into the hands of researchers. The student will implement quality control processes, along with exploratory and descriptive data analytics representative of those performed by researchers.


Student applicants should submit a cover letter along with their resume to Jarrod Doucette jdoucett@purdue.edu
Application date for full consideration is August 16, 2024 @ 5:00 pm.

Essential Functions: 

  • Investigate agricultural center farming operations and types of agronomic and related data that are collected at research sites, documenting the various data-related workflows
  • Under the direction of Ag Data Services staff, work with agricultural center superintendents and staff to understand and document their data-related goals and challenges
  • Work with faculty researchers to learn about how they want to be able access and use data, documenting requirements and workflows
  • Participate as part of a group to set up common directory structure, formats, etc. for organizing and storing research data from the PACs and ACRE
  • Work with agricultural center superintendents and staff to collect and organize contextual metadata related to farm activities
  • Learn methods of transferring data from about farm equipment and farm management software
  • Obtain agronomic and other agricultural center data from farming activities and operations, assist with pre-processing and quality checks, develop metadata, and transfer data into accessible storage
  • Assist faculty and staff with data requests
  • Participate in Ag Data Services team activities including meetings, professional development activities, and attending relevant events

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities: 

  • Strong written and verbal communication skills required.
  • Must have strong analytical skills including simplifying complex technical details for non-technical audience
  • Familiarity working with research data and solid understanding of data management practices
  • Strong technical skills in databases, SQL queries, scripting, etc.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively and meet short deadlines
  • Effective at setting priorities, time management and maintaining confidentiality
  • Eager to work in a highly motivated and collaborative environment