Rutgers University proudly announces the establishment of Rutgers Center of Excellence in Data Science. The center’s mission is to serve as a central platform for interdisciplinary research and collaboration between academic researchers, students and practitioners in industry. Through close research collaborations, workshops and seminars, publication of technical reports and white papers, and training of students on both academic research and practical applications, the center strives to promote advances in the research and practice of data and computer science via statistics.

With modern computing and data collection technology, industry has become more reliant on fast and sophisticated statistical methods to process massive amount of data, extract useful information, explore opportunities in the market, identify trend and growth hot spots, make informed decisions and improve operational efficiency. There is an urgent need in the private and public sector to advance their analytical capabilities to meet the demand and challenges in the market and in society. With advanced data collection and computational capabilities, the analysis of massive data and the extraction of useful information from it have become major emerging frontiers of statistics, computer science and related fields. As modern information technologies relentlessly generate voluminous and complex data, analytical tools with solid foundation of algorithms, optimization, systems building, visualization, statistical theory, and methodology have become indispensable to industry and society in general.

To effectively and efficiently advance the frontier of research, development and applications of Data Science, close collaboration between practitioners and academic researchers is essential and vital. By bridging the practical experiences and academic research expertise, along with an energetic student population eager to learn and contribute, the Center serves as catalyst for interdisciplinary research on the more urgent problems facing the industry.

Center Activities: The center will actively promote and engage in the following core activities along with necessary auxiliary or supporting activities, viz.

  • The center will promote discussions, exchanges of  ideas and collaborations on projects or research that address practical problems by hosting workshops, working sessions, formal or informal meetings, seminars and conferences.
  • The center will serve as a forum for collaboration by center Fellows on projects, and for engaging Research Associates to support these projects or to initiate projects of their own.
  • The center will publish a series of technical reports and white papers, including related computing algorithms and software, disseminate the results of research conducted under the auspices of the center. 
  • The center will support Fellows, in conjunction with Rutgers faculty, in generating proposals for external research grants and funding support.
  • The center will provide seed-funding where possible and appropriate to sponsor or support research activities of center Fellows. 
  • The center will run research competitions periodically on topics related to Data Science.
  • The center will sponsor public events related to the center's mission. 
  • The center will provide technical consulting services to third party projects deemed befitting its mission.