About

Announced in 2018, the Integrative Data Science Initiative (IDSI) is a campus-wide initiative focused on applying data science research to pressing fundamental and socially-relevant issues while establishing an educational "data science for all" ecosystem of data fluency to prepare students for the rapidly expanding future of a data-driven, knowledge economy.

IDSI adds another major goal to the university-wide Purdue Moves initiative, which was launched in 2013 to strengthen and expand the university’s preeminent reputation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. 

Education

IDSI's education thrust is designed to prepare every Purdue student with a fundamental understanding of data science in their chosen field. Purdue students will graduate with the deep analytical thinking skills needed to use data in new ways to reason reliably, intelligently and creatively. They will be a valuable resource for business both in the data science fields and all the sectors that are becoming more data intensive literally every day. Read more about our educational components here. 

Research

The research arm of the data science initiative, housed in Purdue's Discovery Park, is focused on fundamentals, discovery and applications of data science at the at the intersection of privacy, security and ethics. Internally funded projects create synergies among researchers from across disciplines to work together and explore data science questions in health and life sciences, agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation and civil infrastructure. Read more about our research components here. 

History

The Integrative Data Science Initiative was launched in 2018 by the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships. In light of the growing demand for broadly trained data scientists, Purdue University convened research and education working groups, each of which hosted campus-wide forums for input from the Purdue community. Out of those meetings emerged two different reports, which led to the creation of the initiative: 

• Data Science Forum Report
• Data Science Working Group Report

For more background information, see the following: 

• March 15, 2018 - Integrative Data Science Initiative Request for Proposals
• March 15, 2018 - Discovery Park announces request for proposals to support data science initiative
• February 27, 2018 - Faculty and staff input invited to shape data science research initiative
• February 26, 2018 - Steering committee for Integrative Data Science Initiative formed
• February 2, 2018 - Data Sciences Forum video available for viewing
• January 24, 2018 - Follow-up on Purdue's data science initiative
• January 10, 2018 - Feedback sought for data science initiative
• September 8, 2017 - Faculty, staff input sought to explore new data science initiative