Data Analytics Practice Opportunity 2025/26

Organising Parties: CUHK Library and Data Science and Policy Studies, School of Governance and Policy Science, CUHK

Introduction

The Data Analytics Practice Opportunity 2025/26 continues to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and data-driven exploration among CUHK students. Co-organised by the CUHK Library and Data Science and Policy Studies, School of Governance and Policy Science, the initiative encourages students to reuse and analyse real datasets from university and library collections, promoting skills in data mining, visualisation, and storytelling.

Objectives

Encourage reuse of CUHK Library and University datasets
Support exploration of metadata and archival collections
Encourage interdisciplinary research and collaboration
Provide hands-on experience and collaborative learning opportunities in developing adaptive data analytics tools
Promote data reuse, data mining and data visualisation

Project Scope

Participants will:

Develop visualisation and analysis codes using the CUHK Library and University datasets
Create a project webpage
Create a poster banner and a thumbnail
Present their findings during both the mid-term progress sharing session and the final presentation session

Resources

Data in the CUHK Research Data Repository
Data in the CUHK Digital Repository
Data in the The CN Yang Archive

*Access to Canva and other relevant subscription-based resources will be provided as needed

Suggested Research Topics:

Each team may choose one dataset from one of the following sources for their proposed project topic: (A) CUHK Research Data Repository OR (B) CUHK Digital Repository OR (C) The CN Yang Archive.

Name of collection/data	Suggested research topics
(A) CUHK Research Data Repository
1. Twitter Diffusion Data	A review of the factors influencing information propagation and their impact on the relationship between user similarity and retweeting behaviour.
2. Moderate-vigorous physical activity attenuates premature senescence of immune cells in sedentary adults with obesity: a pilot randomized controlled trial	Effects of demographic factors on the correlation between physical activity and biomarkers of immune cell senescence.
3. Effects of wearing a mask during exercise on physiological and psychological outcomes	Evaluation of the physiological impact of mask-wearing during physical exercise.
4. Perception of Online Communities towards the Use of Cancer Immunotherapy: A Data Mining Study of 3.6 Million Web-based Posts from Social Media Platforms Using BERTopic	Analysis of the composition and propagation of sentiment toward cancer immunotherapy.
(B) CUHK Digital Repository
1. Shiu-ying Hu Collection	Explore the vegetation cover characteristics from field work notebooks with digital scholarship methodologies.
2. College Publications in University Archives – 崇基校刊 (1951-1976; 1979-1980; 1982; 1984; 1989-1992) – 新亞生活 (1958-2018) – 聯合校刊 (1960-2006; 2008-2015)	Explore the development of Colleges in relations to CUHK development and the interaction between Colleges and the University.
3. Gender Studies: News and Views=性別硏究資訊 (1991-2001)	Explore the research trends and influences of gender studies from 1991 to 2001.
4. Publications from City Entertainment Magazine (電影雙周刊)	Exploration of entertainment industry in Hong Kong particularly the development of the Hong Kong movie industry from 1979 to 2007.
(C) The CN Yang Archive	Exploring the Role of Prof. C. N. Yang in US–China Scientific Relations: An Analysis of His Evolving Professional Network through Academic Documents, Correspondence, and Photographic Materials from the Archive.

Sample Project Webpages

https://dsprojects.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/projects/#DA

Eligibility

Full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students at CUHK
Teams of 2–3 members
4-5 teams selected via interview

Project Deliverables

Interactive Visualisation or Programming Code – A functional and well-documented code or data visualisation.
Project Webpage – A dedicated webpage showcasing the project’s objectives, methodology, and outcomes.
Poster Banner – A visually engaging banner summarising the project for display purposes
Thumbnail Design – A branded thumbnail incorporating the CUHK and CUHK Library logos.
Final Presentation – A comprehensive presentation to be delivered during Data Excellence Week 2026.

Allowance

HKD8,000 per team

Application process

Applicants must submit:

CV and transcript for each team member
100-word statement of purpose with the proposed topic and relevant datasets
Online application form (individual submission for each team members)

Timeline

2 Jan – 23 Jan 2026	Application Period
Mid – end Jan 2026	Interview of candidates
First week of February 2026	Announcement of successful applicants
9 February 2026	Briefing session (including students’ project overview presentations)
February– March 2026	Development of projects (including one mid-term progress sharing session at the beginning of March 2026)
End of Mar 2026 (TBD)	Final presentations of projects (as part of DEW 2026)
End of April 2026	Completion of projects, codes, and websites

Intellectual Property

According to the University policy, participants are required to assign the intellectual property rights of the project outcome to the University. Participants are authorised to use the original source files provided by the organiser only for the Data Analytics Practice Opportunity. They are not allowed to use them for other purposes without the authorisation of the organiser.

Participants must ensure that the codes developed and project output in the Data Analytics Practice Opportunity are original by the participants or legally authorised by the owner of the intellectual property rights. If any third party raises allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights or the legal irregularities, the participants assume all legal responsibility.

Enquiries

For any enquiries, please email data@cuhk.edu.hk.