Merging Boundaries of Data Science and Information at UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley added the new division as a response to meet the growing demand for data science and cloud computing in a fast-paced innovation industry.

Now, students and researchers can utilize the Division of Data Science and Information at UC Berkeley to further their interest in the growing ecosystem of data and computing. In an official blog posted on the university’s website, we came to know about the new addition to the prestigious campus.

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UC Berkeley’s Data Science Department Positioned to Accelerate Computational Research

The Division of Data Science and Information is created to harness global expertise available at the campus, and prepare enrolled students and research groups in newly conceived technologies, including Deep Learning, Voice, AI/ Machine Learning, Big Data, and more. There will be proper infrastructure and curriculum in place to represent the power of learning at UC Berkeley.

Saul Perlmutter, director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) and winner of the 2011 Nobel P**** in Physics, said, “It is pretty clear that almost every field today needs data-savvy researchers. It has become something as basic as driving a car in our intellectual work.”

Saul added, “Data science — and the new division — offers the university community unusual opportunities to bridge what can otherwise be disparate disciplines. It’s exciting to see the social scientists, the humanities scholars, the natural scientists, and the computational and statistical scholars all in the same conversation, with novel collaborations beginning to address previously intractable and fascinating questions.”

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What UC Berkeley Would Offer in Deep Learning Course?

The newly created Division of Data Science and Information is designed to broaden the spectrum of learning and application of data and computing, bringing faculty and students at Berkeley closer. The learning groups would include the departments from the College of Engineering, the College of Letters and Science and the School of Information.

The division will enable learning groups to tackle contemporary scientific challenges using the pervasive data. The results could also be applied to understand and mitigate the issues at the societal, economic and environmental levels as well.

At the time of this announcement, Paul Alivisatos, executive vice chancellor and provost, said, “Berkeley’s powerful research engine, coupled with its deep commitment to equity and diversity, creates a strong bedrock from which to build the future foundations of this fast-changing field while ensuring that its applications and impacts serve to benefit society as a whole.”

Paul added, “The division’s broad scope and its facilitation of new cross-disciplinary work will uniquely position Berkeley to lead in our data-rich age. It will simultaneously allow a new discipline to emerge and strengthen existing ones.”

Carla Hesse, dean of the Social Sciences Division and executive dean of the College of Letters and Science, said, “The creation of a new cross-campus data science division at Berkeley will ensure not only that all Berkeley students graduate with high levels of data literacy, irrespective of their majors or concentrations, but also that we are positioned as a research university to both accelerate computational research and at the same time to come to grips with the human, social and political transformations the digital revolution has instigated.”

We would continue to bring what kind of research projects are taking shape at UC Berkeley’s Department of Data Science and Information.

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