October 23, 2024 – Artificial intelligence, computing and data science have rapidly reshaped – and are constantly reshaping – modern life.
This summer, the UC Regents voted to approve a new school at UC San Diego to address the growing importance of these disciplines. The fourth school to be added to the campus in the 21st century, the School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences (SCIDS) joins the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC), a national leader in high-performance computing and intensive data. with the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, a pioneering interdisciplinary institute advancing data science and AI education and research.
“SCIDS fills a critical need in modern society to transform data into actionable knowledge,” says Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Computer and data science are key to meeting the needs of students and the state of California, advancing critical research areas such as the future of artificial intelligence, and strengthening the university’s mission of public service.”
Actionable knowledge, or information that can assess situations and take action to solve real-world problems, is the core of the new school. SCIDS seeks to lead innovations that will help educate the workforce of the future and improve the human condition by educating the next generation of highly skilled workers who will drive the application of AI.
“The new school will accelerate the translation of basic research into practice on societal problems ranging from climate change mitigation (fires, extreme weather, water management and resilient agriculture) to social justice issues (food security, homelessness, mass shootings and equal access to opportunity) to health care (personalized medicine and public health),” says Frank Würthwein, director of the San Diego Supercomputing Center and professor in the Department of Physics and Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute.
The new school’s roots go back to the 1980s, when the US National Science Foundation established the San Diego Supercomputing Center as part of a national effort to address a shortage of advanced computing resources. The center provides computing resources to UC San Diego, the UC system, academic institutions across the country, as well as a variety of local stakeholders and state and federal agencies. It provides researchers with internal computing and data resources to accelerate scientific discovery.
Campus founded Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute in 2018 with philanthropic support from Taner Halıcıoğlu ’96, a computer science and engineering student. The first undergraduate degree in data science was established in 2016 as part of the computer science and engineering department before being transferred to the new institute.
By leveraging the depth of talent and experience of both the supercomputing center and the data science institute, SCIDS will be able to “engage new synergies and realize extraordinary new opportunities in creating talent in the fields of development,” says Rajesh Gupta, a distinguished professor of computer science and engineering, interim dean of SCIDS, and founding—and current—director of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute.
The school currently includes 50 faculty members in 16 academic disciplines.
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of UC San Diego Magazine as “Where Data Meets AI.”
Source: UC San Diego