Erasmus Data Collaboratory

Where data comes to life

The Data Collaboratory

The Erasmus Data Collaboratory is an inclusive open learning environment on data and AI, located at campus Erasmus University Rotterdam. It is a place where people can think, work, learn together, and invent using data and AI. As our physical hub, it provides space and facilities for hands-on action learning, action research, experimentation, and valorization. The collaboratory facilitates the complete data science cycle, from data engineering, data analysis up to data visualization. To that purpose, ECDA has partnered with several leading tech companies and startups that offer cloud infrastructure for data and AI, access to specific data sets and algorithms and use of advanced tools for AI and machine learning, process mining and visualization.

The Erasmus Data Collaboratory is the place where students from the Erasmus Tech Community and Turing Students Rotterdam can plan and execute their activities, where ECDA’s corporate partners meet to learn, share and research collaboratively.

Creating positive societal impact

One of the primary aims of the Erasmus Data collaboratory is to foster collective creativity to create societal impact, by bringing together students, academics, public and private partners and startups/scale-ups to work on complex societal challenges, while using the power of data and AI. Examples are the energy transition, resilient deltas, our health system, creating smart and inclusive cities. These issues, all related to contributing to the United Nations SDGs are usually complex, messy and hard to resolve, demanding creative, systemic and divergent design challenge approaches.

Every design challenge will involve facilitators, highly experienced coaches who act as lead learners and guardians of the collaboratory space., as well as subject experts, who are responsible for providing relevant knowledge and contributing it to the discussion in a relevant and pertinent matter.

A lab environment for hands-on training and in-depth research

The collaboratory facilitates as a lab environment for the different expert practices of ECDA, to work on a project basis on research projects and specific challenges of public and private partners. It also is the place for hands-on training, where students from different educational programs and different backgrounds are able to work with real datasets and data analytics, AI and ML tools.

Responsible Data Management

Responsible data management (RDM) is an integral element of research facilitated by ECDA. The Erasmus University Rotterdam has dedicated Data Stewards to provide advice and support to researchers on all aspects of RDM, throughout the research data life cycle, in accordance with international RDM standards and FAIR principles. Moreover, the General Data Protection Regulation Act (GDPR) has come into place across the European Union. The EUR privacy officer helps researchers with privacy assessment and advises them on GDPR-compliant practices. In our research infrastructure data, software codes, research material and corresponding metadata can be shared safely and stored securely. Standard procedures have been introduced to facilitate (long-term) storage of research results and safe access to them on campus and remotely, thus facilitating collaboration in international consortia. ECDA ensures that collaboration and data-sharing with its partners are compliant with legal provisions and codes. You can find our data management protocol (for contract research projects) here.

A node in the Convergence Alliance

The Erasmus Data Collaboratory hub will be one of the important physical nodes in the Convergence in AI, data & digitalization. The urgent and complex societal challenges of our time call for the crossing of boundaries between institutes and disciplines to create new perspectives and solutions. For this reason, TU Delft, Erasmus MC and Erasmus University Rotterdam are joining forces in the Convergence AllianceOpens external. The cooperation between experts in AI, data and digitalization, and experts who apply AI in another scientific domain, is central.

Hub on campus Erasmus University Rotterdam

The physical space opened on October 2021 and includes:

a data lab, equipped with high-quality workstations with high-resolution displays, connected to a cloud infrastructure through fast connections.
a visualization space, with advanced digital projection facilities
a multimedia-equipped boardroom
well-equipped project and meeting rooms, that will be equipped with creative and stimulating tools to support research and education