HDR TRIPODS: UIC Foundations of Data Science Institute

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The project creates a collaborative research institute combining aspects of mathematics, statistics, computer science, and engineering to study the foundations of data science at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The institute will be a collaboration between three departments: Computer Science (CS), Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science (MSCS), and Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). The institute will leverage the wide range of expertise among the investigators on this project in the three departments to bring the theoretical foundations of data science closer to the practice of data science. This involves studying idealized models of data, understanding inherent computational limits associated to these idealized models, and then developing models and methods that are robust to realistic models of uncertainty. The institute will also focus on training the next generation of researchers and will leverage the diversity of UIC, a large urban public research-intensive university with one of the most diverse student bodies in the country.The research aims to push the boundaries of the theory of data science by both gaining deeper understanding of idealized models and by building a theory around realistic models of data and computation. The themes pursued by this institute will include 1) the representation and structure of data; 2) machine learning and complexity; and 3) robustness and privacy. These themes will serve to link the theory and application of data science and to provide opportunities for the investigators to pool their expertise across the three disciplines of theoretical computer science, mathematical sciences, and electrical engineering. The specific activities of the research institute will include hosting themed research workshops, developing the UIC data science curriculum across the three departments, and fostering regional and industrial collaborations through partnerships with the Midwest Big Data Hub and the Discovery Partners Institute. Broader impacts of the institute will include applications of the proposed research to practical data science problems, the development of interdisciplinary data science courses spanning multiple departments, and increasing participation, especially of underrepresented groups, by broadly recruiting students from UIC's diverse community to study data science.This project is part of the National Science Foundation's Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea activity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.