Director's Message

Since the founding of the Center for Statistics and Machine Learning in 2014, our presence on campus has grown in response to the increasing interest in data science.

We have jointly hired faculty members with departments and have future plans to hire additional faculty. The people who have joined us are emblematic of the interdisciplinary nature of the center. Their research and teaching straddles a variety of disciplines – from computer science to astrophysics – and is united by their use of data and algorithms to explore important scientific questions.

Our undergraduate certificate has grown to be the third most popular program on campus. We have over 175 undergrads enrolled in the certificate. Many of our students have joined businesses and institutions as practicing data scientists, potentially shaping the field for years to come. For other students, they are coming away with a sound grounding on data science as part of a general education, an increasing necessity for the modern world. Our graduate certificate has also grown rapidly. At the moment, we have about 70 graduate students enrolled in the certificate.

We have helped launch new, ambitious initiatives that are funding research projects, the hiring of data scientists, the development of new courses and workshops, and other programs that aim to deepen the use of data science across disciplines on campus. 

In addition, we have added lecturers and staff to support the mission of the center.

Underlining these efforts is the center’s collaborative and interdisciplinary spirit. We often co-sponsor many events and programs with departments and centers on campus.

For people interested in becoming part of our community, we have a variety of avenues for engagement, including collaboration with our researchers, and our enriching classes and seminars.

It’s an exciting time of growth at the center, and I hope you can join us.

Tom Griffiths
Director of the Center for Statistics and Machine Learning
Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness and Culture
Departments of Psychology and Computer Science