In the fall of 2017, Provost Jayanth Banavar convened a Data Science Visioning Committee comprised of academic leaders from across UO. The committee was charged with generating guidance to address four major categories of consideration related to the development of a data science program: tools and technical resources, space requirements, educational framework, and initial intellectual foci.
The resulting recommendation was designed to be a roadmap for the implementation of the data science initiative based on five core principles:
- Be well connected across the university and include both research and education.
- Build upon the long history of interdisciplinary research at UO.
- Capitalize on the identity and strength of UO being a liberal arts research university.
- Leap from historical structural weaknesses in applied math and computation.
- Help build bridges to new academic and societal partners.
Read the Vision for Oregon's Data Science Initiative
From that vision, the Data Science Initiative has developed an operational structure designed to support the incubation and launch of novel educational and research opportunities in support of the university and the state.