Topic: Interdisciplinarity of Data Science and AI: Driving Innovation and Advancing Societal Impact.

The ubiquity of AI and data science is spurred by significant factors, including 1) major methodological and computational advances; 2) the increasing availability of problem statements in sciences, engineering, business and the social sciences; and 3) an increasing demand from academia, research institutions, corporations, and governments for talent. This is presenting unparalleled opportunities to accelerate scientific discovery, innovation and translation. In this talk, I’ll present elements of our research program and vision that is centered on the principles of data & society, including partnerships, fostering innovation in data science and AI while generating educational opportunities, societal impact, and entrepreneurship. 

Nitesh Chawla is the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and the Founding Director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society at University of Notre Dame. His research is focused on artificial intelligence, data science, and network science, and is motivated by the question of how technology can advance the common good through interdisciplinary research.  His publications have received more than 50,000 citations with an h-index of 75. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and Fellow of the Asia Pacific Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAIA). He is the recipient of multiple awards, including National Academy of Engineers New Faculty Fellowship, IEEE CIS Outstanding Early Career Award, Rodney F. Ganey Community Impact Award, IBM Big Data & Analytics Faculty Award, and the 1st Source Bank Technology Commercialization Award. He is co-founder of Aunalytics, a data science software and cloud computing company.