About DataX

UCLA DataX is a strategic initiative focused on strengthening research and education in data science and critical data studies across more than 40 different schools, divisions, departments, programs, institutes, centers and initiatives. We aim to amplify civic engagement and transform education at UCLA by bringing together a robust and highly collaborative community of people working across data science and data studies, which include, but are not limited to: humanists, social scientists, artists, legal scholars, researchers in health and medicine, math, data theory, statistics, computer science and engineering. Many in our UCLA research community understand the limits and opportunities afforded by data science and are increasingly working together on complex data-driven problems, from aerospace and environmental science to the life sciences, to anthropology and sociology. DataX is designed to bring together scientists, humanists, engineers and scholars from each UCLA division in the College and the UCLA professional schools. At UCLA, we believe that data is transforming the world, and we are producing cutting-edge research and pedagogy that contends with and solves difficult data problems.

As a campus priority, DataX is establishing administrative structures that can enable resource sharing for the entire campus by helping people find collaborators, learn about new problems and techniques, and participate in a campus-wide educational effort to make data science accessible to all students. We endeavor to offer an interdisciplinary academic hub that makes it possible for individual faculty, departments, programs, divisions and schools to do things they otherwise would find difficult or impossible alone.

DataX also aspires to serve as a new entry point that will provide a broad range of undergraduate and graduate students a welcoming path to data fluency, including exposure to technical programming and statistical skills, as well as a variety of social, ethical, and critical considerations. The career landscape for our students has changed dramatically in recent years and continues to do so at a rapid pace, driven by the widespread availability and use of large quantities of data. This challenge is an interdisciplinary and campus-wide one which DataX is poised to address.

Our overriding principle is one of inclusion. DataX will provide pathways for interested faculty and students at all technical levels. Integral to this commitment is building a community of researchers and creators with diverse identities, experiences and backgrounds, with a particular focus on inclusion of historically underrepresented groups in data science and studies.