Continued changes in the so-called “big data” landscape and advances in computational and communications technologies are changing scholarship activities and college curricula. Many disciplines have incorporated data analytics to address issues ranging from vaccine delivery to economic development to political advertising, to computational analysis of cultural artifacts and their audiences, and we believe that the time is ripe to combine them into rigorous multidisciplinary perspectives that can both advance our understanding and increase student and faculty engagement.

The Computational and Applied Data Sciences Initiative seeks to foster community and engagement on teaching and research that encourage and enable computational, statistical and digital humanities approaches to data exploration and analysis across Wesleyan’s campus. It is a faculty-led continuation and expansion of the Digital and Computational Knowledge Initiative (DaCKI). A central component is to promote the lab model, enabling more hands-on research and opportunities on campus, along with community-building events to engage in a common theme in hopes of facilitating more discussion around shared research interests and methodologies.