The Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics

Director's Message

At the Center for Academic Data Science & Analytics (CADSA), we harness the power of data to address society’s most urgent challenges through cutting-edge research, transformative education, and global innovation. Our strategic partnerships across industry, government, and academia position CADSA to drive discovery, expand opportunity, and deliver solutions that advance the public good. I look forward to working with the Howard University community to build on our legacy of excellence, truth, and service, elevating the impact of data-driven innovation around the world.

Talitha Washington, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Overview

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

• Economic Growth: Driving market competitiveness, entrepreneurship, and financial innovation.
• Environmental Stewardship: Supporting responsible resource management and sustainable development.
• Health Innovation and Access: Advancing research-driven solutions to healthcare challenges and expanding access to medical advancements.
• Promoting Human Flourishing: Utilizing data-driven insights to enhance societal well-being and individual opportunities. 

To address these issues, CADSA provides the HU community with the resources needed to develop a data-driven understanding of and solutions to 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. 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 information. Communication with peers, industry, 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 information. As a result, when new information is considered in the 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 research areas of CADSA. Moreover, these research topics hold the potential to engage student and faculty investigators from all HU schools and colleges and ensure a broad and interdisciplinary approach to solving critical challenges that face our world.