Welcome to the repository for our Tech Focus Project 2025: Data Storytelling, part of the NLeSC initiative to enhance communication and accessibility of research software through compelling, AI-powered narratives.
This repository gathers all deliverables, research, tools, and demos created during the project.
Goal: Help Research Software Engineers (RSEs) and scientists present complex research outputs using storytelling techniques, combining narrative design, data visualization, and AI tooling.
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Below is the planned list of project deliverables, based on the proposal and current progress. We aim to complete these by December 2025 unless noted otherwise (In progress...).
- ✅ Literature Review: Systematic overview of data storytelling across domains
- ✅ Working AI Pipelines: Modular storytelling pipeline using small LLMs
- ✅ Interactive Web Application: 3D visualization platform with AI story generator (webapp/)
- Training Guide: Work-in-progress handbook for data storytelling in RSE
- Best use of LLMs, RAG model quality analysis, etc.
- Story generation quality metrics: structure, factual accuracy, engagement, etc.
- Use Case Application: Storytelling applied to eScience evaluation project(s)
- Showcase Outputs: Poster, website, and internal presentation planned for December
The webapp/ directory contains an interactive 3D visualization platform for exploring eScience Center research software projects.
- 3D Domain Exploration: Navigate through four research domains (Life Sciences, Environment, Social Sciences, Engineering) with unique 3D visualizations
- AI Story Generator: Generate audience-specific narratives using Google Gemini:
- Communications (general public)
- Academic (scholarly)
- Internal Review (leadership)
- One Pager (executive summary)
- Context Enrichment: Include related software and uploaded documents for richer stories
- Export Options: Download stories as Markdown or PDF
See the webapp README for setup and usage instructions.
- Student Literature Review (2025) — Theoretical background across journalism, finance, education, and medicine
- MSc Thesis: Educational Data Storytelling with SLMs (Ye, 2025) — Modular AI pipeline using RAG + SLMs
- Project Proposal (TFP25) — Official eScience Center project definition
📁 /docs → Literature review, thesis, and guidelines
📁 /training → Training materials for RSEs
📁 /examples → Use cases and storytelling demos
📁 /tools → Prompt templates, workflows, and helper scripts
📁 /slides → Presentation materials for internal sharing
📁 /poster → Visual assets for eScience Center showcase
See also:
📁 sharepoint (Requires login, members only)
- Kody Moodley - Research Software Engineer
- Pablo Rodríguez - Research Software Engineer
- Stefan Verhoeven - Research Software Engineer
- Peter Kalverla - Research Software Engineer
- Jesse Gonzalez - Project Lead - Research Software Engineer
- Adam Belloum - Tech Lead
- Junming Ye - Student Researcher
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Contributing
This repository is for internal use at the eScience Center. However, if you’re interested in contributing examples, feedback, or tools, please contact the team.
🚀 Let’s make scientific data accessible, impactful, and memorable through better storytelling.