Data

Data Initiative Goals, Targets & Actions

Goals:

• Prepare our students to lead in a data-rich world.
• Become a thought leader at the intersection of computational and data sciences and the multitude of disciplines that study human societies, culture and experiences, including the humanities, social sciences, arts, education, law and business.
• Develop a research portfolio that builds upon the emerging confluence among data analysis and a broad range of arts and sciences to advance discovery and innovative design.
• Foster an entrepreneurial mindset, priming our campus and region for data science innovations through stronger connections with commonwealth, federal and corporate partners.

Targets:

• By 2024, build a robust yet agile foundation for an educational portfolio at the undergraduate and graduate level that strengthens and expands current programs, establishes more visible connections between existing offerings, and develops new course and program offerings.
• By 2025, increase participation of faculty and students in computational and data sciences and engineering activities across campus, with the goal of doubling these numbers.
• By 2026, grow the number of women and other underrepresented populations in our data and computational sciences faculty and students by at least 50%.

Actions:

• Expand our presence and influence in computational and data sciences, including the emerging field of computational engineering and related areas, consistent with student demand and Virginia workforce needs.
• Create a W&M multipurpose data science innovation hub as part of Williamsburg’s new tech village, to support large-scale federal research funding and public-private partnerships.
• Develop a new program with emphasis on computational and data engineering, building upon the university’s existing strengths in these scientific areas to provide foundation and context to educational and research pursuits.
• Build connections with industry and other partners to better align our programs with society and workforce needs, and provide opportunities for tradecraft enrichment and bidirectional scientific innovations.