The Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics

Director's Message

Data plays an ever-increasing role in contemporary life.  Moreover, the impact of data pervades essentially every aspect our individual and collective lives.  It is also clear that data has become a powerful medium of exchange that impacts healthcare, social well-being, and financial positioning.  The Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics (CADSA) is a tool that ensures that Howard investigators and students are well prepared for managing this powerful medium and insure its equitable application across all segments of society.  This center will send out from Howard University corps of data activists that will ensure equitable application of data in their area of influence.  CADSA ushers in a new and exciting chapter of Howard history and I am very pleased to be a part of it.

William Southerland, Ph.D.
Interim Director

Overview

The Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics at Howard University (CASDA) coordinates and facilitates interdisciplinary data science research and instruction in the primarily in the following areas:

• Economic empowerment
• Minority health & health disparities
• Social justice
• Environmental justice

To address these issues, CADSA provides the HU investigator community the resources needed to develop data-driven understandings of the current state of each of these research areas. Additionally, CADSA will develop proper insight into research trend directions and how the HU research effort can position itself to both benefit from and influence the developing trend directions. In summary, the CADSA is an HU institutional tool of inquiry that produces new information that can then be used to address important human problems. As a result, the research philosophy of the CADSA will be to inquire, to inform, and to intervene. The CADSA will implement this three-fold research philosophy as described below.

Inquire

The process of inquiry will involve the probing analysis of new and/or existing data to generate new information. The ultimate outcome of inquiry will be the conversion of data into useful information, the ‘inquire’ process will be driven by posing pertinent research questions that will provide meaning and understanding to available data1 from existing sources or emanating from the pursuit of original research.

Inform

Data that is understood or appreciated in the proper context is viewed as information1. Communication both with peers, funders, and the public is an important aspect of competitive research, especially research that is focused on problem resolution. The research arm of the CADSA will be very active in communicating new information to all relevant stakeholder communities. This is critical to ensure discipline-based and community-based consensus regarding newly generated information and its potential use or applicability for problem resolution.

Intervene

Knowledge may be viewed as categorized or organized information1. As a result, when new information is considered in context of relevant categorized/organized existing information, it contributes to the expansion of the knowledge pool and expands the problem-solving potential of the information collective. Problem solving occurs when relevant knowledge is applied to address a current applicable problem. For problem solving to occur, knowledge intervention into the current status of problems must occur.

Research Strategy Summary

It should be noted that this research approach is applicable to each of the umbrella research areas of the CADSA. Moreover, these umbrella research topics hold potential to engage faculty investigators from all HU schools and colleges and ensures a broad and interdisciplinary approach to solving critical challenges to the African American community and the African diaspora.