Graduate School Top Level Calendar » GRADUATE SCHOOL

research, essentials, introduction, data, your, generative, classes, publishing

Eastern Time

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Summer Graduation (there is no summer commencement exercise)

Access the Full Academic Calendar to find information including holidays, registration dates, payment deadlines, drop or add dates, exams and commencement for each term. Friday, August 15, 2025.

Faculty Reporting Date

Access the Full Academic Calendar to find information including holidays, registration dates, payment deadlines, drop or add dates, exams and commencement for each term. Monday, August 18, 2025, 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM.

Classes Begin

Access the Full Academic Calendar to find information including holidays, registration dates, payment deadlines, drop or add dates, exams and commencement for each term. Tuesday, August 19, 2025, 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM.

Last day to change/drop a course without a grade of 'W' being recorded (part of term 30)

Labor Day Holiday (no classes)

Research Data Management Basics

Good data management practices can help ensure that your research data are findable, accessible, and re-usable long-term. In this session, learn useful tips to help you manage your data. Topics include best practices for file management, documentation, storage, preservation, and more. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14830817. Tuesday, September 2, 2025, 2:50 PM – 4:05 PM. See event description for more details.

Text Analysis for Beginners

Do you have a textual data for qualitative analysis! This session is perfect for anyone looking to transform unstructured text data into meaningful insights. Key topics include: Introduction to text analysis: What is it and why it matters? , Reading and preprocessing text: Cleaning and preparing data for analysis. , Extracting insights like word frequency and word count. , Tools and techniques: Overview of Python libraries (e.g. NLTK) and other user-friendly platforms , Hands-on work with actual text data in the class using python notebooks , By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a foundational understanding of text mining concepts and practical experience working with basic tools and techniques. Whether you’re a student, researcher, or professional, this workshop will equip you with the skills to start your text analysis journey! Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866073. Thursday, September 4, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:20 PM. See event description for more details.

Graduate Student Expo

Join us for the 2025 Graduate Student Expo on September 5, 2025, from 9 am to 12 pm at the Russell House Ballroom! This family-friendly event is designed for both new and current graduate students at USC. Enjoy a resource fair featuring 30+ campus organizations, ongoing workshops, and exciting door prizes, including scholarships, parking passes, gift cards, and more. Savor breakfast goods and coffee while connecting with fellow students and discovering essential resources at the University of South Carolina. Friday, September 5, 2025, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Russell House University Union 203, Russell House University Union 205, Russell House Theater, Russell House Ballroom.

Extracting Data from Websites Using APIs

Unlock the power of APIs to efficiently extract and utilize data from websites! This hands-on workshop is designed for beginners and intermediate learners who want to gain practical skills in API integration. Participants will learn the fundamentals of APIs, how to access and interpret API documentation, and techniques for extracting structured data for analysis. We will cover the following topics: What is an API and its role in data extraction? , How to make requests and handle responses? , What are API keys ? , How to parse the JSON and other data formats? , New York Times API example for extracting data , By the end of this workshop, you’ll have the basic understanding of APIs for tasks like gathering data for research and analysis. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866146. Friday, September 5, 2025, 10:10 AM – 11:10 AM. See event description for more details.

Introduction to Git and GitHub

Git is a free version control system that programmers and developers use to track and share code. GitHub is a free website that simplifies the findability, accessibility, and reusability of program code, in addition to providing a web browser interface to the version control commands. This workshop will take you from being a novice to being highly proficient at using Git and GitHub. You will learn how to collaborate on projects effectively with GitHub, build a solid foundation in Git, and master advanced version control skills. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14882523. Monday, September 8, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:45 PM. See event description for more details.

Data Visualization - The Essentials - History, Concepts, and Principles

Most of us live in a visual world. As technologies have developed, more of our world has become more visual. This is no less true in our learning, teaching, and research world as it is in our personal living world. Data visualization, the use of charts, graphs, plots, maps, etc. to explain and explore data, has now become an essential literacy as well as an expected application skill in growing areas of academia and work. This learning session provides a foundation for developing a fundamental understanding of data visualization. We will discuss five essentials: What data visualization is and why it's important , Where data visualization came from and how continues to evolve , Some of the science explaining why and how data visualization works , Foundational principles that help to define effective and ineffective data visualizations , Crucial ethical and accessibility issues related to data visualization use , Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14763503. Tuesday, September 9, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:55 PM. See event description for more details.

Explore Creating a Website for Your Research

Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857335. Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 1:10 PM – 2:00 PM. See event description for more details.

Introduction to Publishing in Scholarly Journals

In this session, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the academic publishing process. While reviewing the publishing cycle, you’ll learn to prepare your manuscript and select a high impact, accessible journal, how to navigate the peer review process and, finally, how you can promote and share your scholarship. Register online. Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:10 PM. See event description for more details.

Explore Creating a Website for Your Research

Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857350. Thursday, September 11, 2025, 10:00 AM – 11:20 AM. See event description for more details.

Data Visualization - The Essentials - Application Principles and Processes

Data visualization literacy is already an essential knowledge requirement for our academic environment as well as generally. Data visualization application knowledge and skills are becoming increasingly valuable and even required in more and more of the academic and work world. To create and use data visualizations in our academic and work worlds we first must answer a couple of questions. We then need some basic understanding of how the predominant data visualization tools function. In this learning session we will consider and discuss five essentials for applying data visualization: How do we determine the appropriate data visualization type(s) to use? , How do we decide which data visualization tool or product to use? , How do the three predominant data visualization tools (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau) compare in terms of usage? , Why, when, and how might we use programming languages such as R and Python for creating data visualizations? , How might we use tools such as ArcGIS and… Thursday, September 11, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM. See event description for more details.

Generative AI - The Essentials - GenAI is Different!

Although it has only been three years since the introduction of ChatGPT, most of us have heard more than a little about artificial intelligence (AI) and more specifically generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). It seems everything in our current world has some connection to AI and/or GenAI. At the same time, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about GenAI; what it is, how it works, if we should use it, how we can use it effectively, etc. This session will discuss five essentials regarding GenAI: GenAI is fundamentally different than traditional information and information search systems with which we are familiar , Our interactions with GenAI need to be different than our interactions with traditional information systems in order to be effective , Our uses and expectations of GenAI systems and tools need to be different than how we have used and what we have expected from our traditional systems , We are still in the early stages of development, evolution, application, and adoption of… Monday, September 15, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM. See event description for more details.

Explore Creating a Website for Your Research

Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857370. Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM. See event description for more details.

Generative AI - The Essentials - Conversations with GenAI

While we don't want to anthropomorphize GenAI any more than it already is, there is something to be said for communicating with GenAI tools in a more human conversational manner. After all, conversational AI is a key component in most GenAI tools and the way they are designed to work is based on machine learning and machine communication being more like how we believe humans learn and communicate. Just as there are skills and techniques one can learn to communicate more effectively with our fellow humans, there are also skills and techniques one can learn and apply to communicating and conversing with GenAI tools. The popular technical term for this is prompt engineering. During this session we will consider five essentials related to communicating effectively with GenAI tools: GenAI tools are designed to use conversational AI to both understand our inquiries and respond in an understandable manner , There is both a skill and an art to effectively communicating with GenAI tools , GenAI tools are… Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:10 PM. See event description for more details.

Introduction to Publishing in Scholarly Journals

In this session, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the academic publishing process. While reviewing the publishing cycle, you’ll learn to prepare your manuscript and select a high impact, accessible journal, how to navigate the peer review process and, finally, how you can promote and share your scholarship. Register online. Thursday, September 18, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:30 PM. See event description for more details.

Introduction to Monograph Publishing

This multi-disciplinary workshop will provide an overview of standard publishing processes with a focus on best practices for graduate students who are considering the publication of a first scholarly monograph. The publishing process will be broken down into parts and guidance will be offered to increase chances of success at each stage. Common misconceptions will be addressed, and routine faux pas will be highlighted so as give advantage to SHARPGrads in the academic literary marketplace. Handouts/take-away files will be distributed. Michael J. McGandy is director of University of South Carolina Press. Prior to arriving at USC, he worked at Cornell University Press, where he was Senior Editor and Editorial Director of the Three Hills imprint. He has also worked in commercial publishing at Macmillan Library Reference/Gale Group, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, and W. W. Norton & Company. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14764274. Thursday, September 18, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:45 PM. See event description for more details.

Generative AI - The Essentials - Building a Basic Toolbox

We began with ChatGPT as THE GenAI tool, and for many, that may still be the only GenAI product they have ever used. In the time since its inception, however, many other GenAI products and tools have been developed. As with most tools and technologies, rarely is there one that does everything we need or want. During this session, we will build a GenAI toolbox that will be useful in our academic and general endeavors. Using the research lifecycle as a functional guide, we will consider five essential areas and mention a tool or tools relevant to those areas: General purpose GenAI chatbots , GenAI search tools , Citation-mapping GenAI tools , Data analysis/visualization GenAI tools , GenAI writing assistants , We will also briefly mention non-text (image, video, sound) GenAI products. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14773511. Friday, September 19, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:40 AM. See event description for more details.

Understanding Copyright and Publication Agreements: Safeguard your Research

In the publishing world, transferring copyright is often a necessary step. Recent partnerships between scholarly publishers and technology companies emphasize the importance of understanding your publishing agreements. Publishing agreements impact how your work is utilized: it may be used to train AI models, or there may be restrictions on sharing your research with colleagues, students, and the public. This one-hour workshop will provide you with strategies for managing your copyright. You will learn how to carefully evaluate publication agreements, negotiate your rights, and select publishers whose policies meet your requirements. Join us to understand how you can control the use and dissemination of your scholarship. Register online. Friday, September 19, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM. See event description for more details.

Creating a Website for Your Research

Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857375. Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 12:00 PM – 12:50 PM. See event description for more details.

Introduction to Python Using Anaconda

This workshop will introduce users to the Python programming language. Python is an easy-to-learn, extensible, high-level programming language which has the simplicity and readability of its code as its core design principles. As a result, Python is one of the most widely used programming languages for scientific data processing and many other applications. Python libraries and applications are available for a wide range of applications, including natural language processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14882593. Thursday, September 25, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:55 PM. See event description for more details.

Research Data Management Basics

Good data management practices can help ensure that your research data are findable, accessible, and re-usable long-term. In this session, learn useful tips to help you manage your data. Topics include best practices for file management, documentation, storage, preservation, and more. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14830819. Thursday, September 25, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:55 PM. See event description for more details.

Embracing Public Scholarship: Connecting Your Research and the Public

Discover how to bridge the gap between academic research and public engagement in this workshop. Your work has the potential to make a meaningful impact beyond traditional academia. In this session, we’ll explore strategies, best practices, and examples to help you become an effective public scholar. Join in exploring how your scholarly expertise can contribute to public discourse and create positive change. Register online. Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 11:40 AM – 12:40 PM. See event description for more details.

Introduction to MATLAB

MATLAB is a feature-rich programming language for scientific and numerical data processing for which USC has a university-wide site license. MATLAB also has many application toolkits available for use in diverse fields of research. This workshop will introduce users to the MATLAB programming language, with a focus on reading spreadsheet data into MATLAB, processing the data using matrix operations, writing the processed data to a spreadsheet, and visualizing the data. A MATLAB license and an installed version of MATLAB are recommended but not required to attend this workshop. Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14720362. Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 2:50 PM – 4:05 PM. See event description for more details.

Research Data Management Basics

Good data management practices can help ensure that your research data are findable, accessible, and re-usable long-term. In this session, learn useful tips to help you manage your data. Topics include best practices for file management, documentation, storage, preservation, and more. Register online at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14830822. Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 9:40 AM – 10:30 AM. See event description for more details.

Text Analysis for Beginners

Do you have a textual data for qualitative analysis! This session is perfect for anyone looking to transform unstructured text data into meaningful insights. Key topics include: Introduction to text analysis: What is it and why it matters? , Reading and preprocessing text: Cleaning and preparing data for analysis. , Extracting insights like word frequency and word count. , Tools and techniques: Overview of Python libraries (e.g. NLTK) and other user-friendly platforms , Hands-on work with real text and python notebook , By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a foundational understanding of text mining concepts and practical experience working with basic tools and techniques. Whether you’re a student, researcher, or professional, this workshop will equip you with the skills to start your text analysis journey! Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866294. Thursday, October 2, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:20 PM. See event description for more details.

Extracting Data From Websites Using APIs

Unlock the power of APIs to efficiently extract and utilize data from websites! This hands-on workshop is designed for beginners and intermediate learners who want to gain practical skills in API integration. Participants will learn the fundamentals of APIs, how to access and interpret API documentation, and techniques for extracting structured data for analysis. We will cover the following topics: What is an API and its role in data extraction? , How to make requests and handle responses? , What are API keys ? , How to parse the JSON and other data formats? , New York Times API example for extracting data , By the end of this workshop, you’ll have the basic understanding of APIs for tasks like gathering data for research and analysis. Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14866147. Friday, October 3, 2025, 10:10 AM – 11:10 AM. See event description for more details.

Data Visualization - The Essentials - History, Concepts, and Principles

Most of us live in a visual world. As technologies have developed, more of our world has become more visual. This is no less true in our learning, teaching, and research world as it is in our personal living world. Data visualization, the use of charts, graphs, plots, maps, etc. to explain and explore data, has now become an essential literacy as well as an expected application skill in growing areas of academia and work. This learning session provides a foundation for developing a fundamental understanding of data visualization. We will discuss five essentials: What data visualization is and why it's important , Where data visualization came from and how continues to evolve , Some of the science explaining why and how data visualization works , Foundational principles that help to define effective and ineffective data visualizations , Crucial ethical and accessibility issues related to data visualization use , Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14770898. Monday, October 6, 2025, 10:50 AM – 11:50 AM. See event description for more details.

Staying Scholarly: Navigating Predatory Publishing, Citation Manipulation, and Research Fraud

It’s essential to know how to identify and avoid bad research and publishing practices. This virtual workshop equips attendees with the tools to recognize and steer clear of predatory publishers and conferences, understand how citation manipulation (including citation cartels and inflated profiles on platforms like Google Scholar) can distort scholarly impact, and spot warning signs of fraudulent research. Through real-world examples and practical strategies, participants will learn how to safeguard their scholarly integrity and make informed decisions about where and how they publish and present their work. Register online. Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 10:05 AM – 11:20 AM. See event description for more details.

Explore Creating a Website for Your Research

Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web. Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857540. Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM. See event description for more details.

Explore Creating a Website for Your Research

Technology has allowed for scholarship to be created and shared in new and exciting ways. Consider a whole new audience for your research. In this workshop, you’ll learn the possibilities when you decide to share your research online. We will discuss possible web hosting options and tools that can help bring your research to life on the web. Register at https://libcal.library.sc.edu/event/14857686. Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM. See event description for more details.

Data Visualization - The Essentials - Application Principles and Processes

Data visualization literacy is already an essential knowledge requirement for our academic environment as well as generally. Data visualization application knowledge and skills are becoming increasingly valuable and even required in more and more of the academic and work world. To create and use data visualizations in our academic and work worlds we first must answer a couple of questions. We then need some basic understanding of how the predominant data visualization tools function. In this learning session we will consider and discuss five essentials for applying data visualization: How do we determine the appropriate data visualization type(s) to use? , How do we decide which data visualization tool or product to use? , How do the three predominant data visualization tools (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau) compare in terms of usage? , Why, when, and how might we use programming languages such as R and Python for creating data visualizations? , How might we use tools such as ArcGIS and… Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 1:10 PM – 2:10 PM. See event description for more details.

Fall Break (no classes)

Access the Full Academic Calendar to find information including holidays, registration dates, payment deadlines, drop or add dates, exams and commencement for each term. Thursday, October 9, 2025, 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM.

Fall Break (no classes)

Access the Full Academic Calendar to find information including holidays, registration dates, payment deadlines, drop or add dates, exams and commencement for each term. Friday, October 10, 2025, 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM.

Midpoint in Semester

Generative AI - The Essentials - GenAI is Different!

Although it has only been three years since the introduction of ChatGPT, most of us have heard more than a little about artificial intelligence (AI) and more specifically generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). It seems everything in our current world has some connection to AI and/or GenAI. At the same time, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about GenAI; what it is, how it works, if we should use it, how we can use it effectively, etc. This session will discuss five essentials regarding GenAI: GenAI is fundamentally different than traditional information and information search systems with which we are familiar , Our interactions with GenAI need to be different than our interactions with traditional information systems in order to be effective , Our uses and expectations of GenAI systems and tools need to be different than how we have used and what we have expected from our traditional systems , We are still in the early stages of development, evolution, application, and adoption of… Monday, October 13, 2025, 2:20 PM – 3:10 PM. See event description for more details.