The DataSquad: An entry point for RSE

A corrected later version of this poster is available: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23404925 . This earlier version has an error in the election-news scraper example (it says seven students built the scraper and that the project involved 500,000 transcripts; the later version says one student built it, six improved it, and that the project set out to scrape over 500,000 transcripts). Please cite the later version. The DataSquad at Carleton College addresses a common problem in higher education: limited capacity for data and software support services and few opportunities for students to gain practical experience with RSE and data support. The challenge for students to acquire foundational experience is even more challenging due to the relative obscurity of the work; most especially for those from underrepresented backgrounds. In this gap between technical service/support needs and student experience we also find an opportunity; if we can harness the motivation of students to expand their experience, perhaps we can grow local support capacity, diversify people who thrive in RSE/data support areas, and enjoy our problem-solving work!Come and talk with us about working with novices! Compare obstacles & solutions with us. We are happy to share our strategies for managing a high-impact team of novices without a dedicated budget or full-time oversight, and offer practical resources—including job descriptions, confidentiality agreements, and project management frameworks—to help supervisors implement the DataSquad model in your own environments. Poster presented at the US-RSE '26 poster reception, San Jose Marriott. Source: https://github.com/DataSquad-International/poster-usrse26. AI assistance: Claude (Anthropic) helped write the layout code and some wording, and Gemini Notebook generated the drawings the icons were traced from. The authors reviewed the output and are responsible for the content.