Data & Analytics
U Michigan Will Spend $100 Million on New Data Science Initiative
The
University
of Michigan (U-M) will spend $100
million over the next five years to enhance the opportunities for
students and
faculty to take advantage of big data.
With
the investment in Michigan's Data Science
Initiative (DSI), the university will:
- Hire
35 additional faculty members and engage
more existing faculty in the initiative;
- Support
interdisciplinary data-related research
initiatives;
- Provide
new academic programs for students interested
in data science;
- Expand
its research computing capacity;
- Strengthen
data management storage, analytics and
training resources; and
- Establish
the Michigan
Institute for Data Science.
"Data
science has become a fourth approach to
scientific discovery, in addition to experimentation, modeling and
computation,"
said U-M Provost Martha Pollack. "The DSI will launch challenge
initiatives in
four critical interdisciplinary areas that build on our existing
strengths in
transportation research, health sciences, learning analytics and social
science
research."
Among
projects already in place at the university
involving data science are:
- Researchers
at the Mobility Transformation Center
are collecting data at a rate of 10 times per second on nearly 3,000
cars,
trucks and buses on the streets of Ann Arbor, MI, to test the operation
of
connected vehicles;
- Researchers
are using data to boost the effectiveness
of data-driven biomedical and health research to accelerate the
transition from
basic research to patient care;
- Big
data is being used to examine the nature of
teaching and learning with the aim of providing instruction more
closely
tailored to individual students; and
- Social
scientists are looking at ways to use data
that would replace or complement traditional surveying techniques.
"Big
data is revolutionizing research in an
extraordinary range of disciplines," said S. Jack Hu, interim vice
president
for research. "Our goal is to spark innovation in research across
campus, while
inspiring further advances in the techniques of data science itself."
An
inaugural symposium on the launch of the DSI
will be held on the Ann Arbor campus October 6.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.