Goals: For faculty:  provide opportunities for existing and future faculty to engage in, collaborate on, and compete for sponsored research projects that advance data science and machine learning methods or apply them to solve problems of importance to society, by giving support in grant writing and data analysis. For students: provide opportunities for students in existing programs to develop analytics skills through new courses, workshops, summer internships, and faculty-mentored research experiences. For external connections: provide a unified interface to large and small companies and non-governmental organizations looking to engage data science experts in the ethical use of data to create new enterprise, solve business problems, and improve society.

Mission: Fostering interdisciplinary research and education in multidisciplinary grand-challenge areas; Strengthening and expanding the University network by enhancing relationships with world-class researchers and establishing links and creative partnerships with industry leaders, community, and government stakeholders; Supporting current graduate and undergraduate degree offerings involving data science and analytical skills.