The OER working group is excited to announce our first grant, awarded to Andrew White for his open textbook, Deep Learning in Chemistry and Materials Science. The textbook examines Deep Learning, a specialized form of artificial intelligence, and its applications within the field of chemistry. White, who teaches Chemical Engineering at the University of Rochester, has been working on the textbook for the past nine months. He explains that, while there are already many resources about Deep Learning, many of them exist behind a paywall, and there are none that focus specifically on chemistry and materials science. The project is also unique in that it is a living textbook - the text can be continually updated to keep up with the rapid growth of the field of Deep Learning.
With the grant, White will be able to add a wealth of new content to the textbook. This will include new chapters on Symbolic Regression, Semi-Supervised Learning, and Few-Shot Learning, as well as new graphics and exercises for the existing chapters. In addition, he will be able to ensure that the textbook is accessible to all learners. White won't be tackling this project alone--he plans to involve his students, both undergraduate and graduate, in creating new content for the book. In doing so, White is not only creating an Open Educational Resource but also engaging in Open Pedagogy practices.
You can take a look at the textbook in its current iteration here, and keep up with White by following him on Twitter @andrewhite01.
