To combat the impending dearth of skilled data scientists and analysts the University of Rochester, New York has set up the Institute for Data Science (IDS). The New York State recently provided support to create a new Rochester Center of Excellence in Data Science (CoE) at the University which, will cooperate with the IDS to leverage basic research, training and technology development in this field of Big Data to drive regional economic development.

To supervise the workings of the IDS an External Advisory Committee for the University of Rochester’s Institute for Data Science convened earlier this month in Rochester for its first meeting.

Conceptual image via rochester.edu

The committee that consists of 10 members from leading high-technology companies, industry and academia, held discussions and attended a series of presentations updating them on the Institute’s research and education goals and plans. Members include Eric Horvitz, director of Microsoft Research, Oren Etzioni, the executive director of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Alon Halevy, the structured data management research group lead at Google, among others.

“The External Advisory Committee connects us to the world’s leading industrial research and development laboratories in computer science, medicine, and communications, as well as other top universities doing work in data science,” said Henry Kautz, director of the Institute.

“We look forward to the insights they will offer, which will help us ensure the Institute and Rochester become a reference point for data science worldwide.”

The University’s Institute for Data Science brings together interdisciplinary research in this field while offering bachelor’s and masters’ programs in data science and related subjects.

The Center for Governmental Research had published a report last year that pointed out that IDS will create 460 jobs and generate an estimated $530 million in research funding over a 10-year period, reports the University.

Photo credit: RLHyde / Foter / CC BY-SA