We address gaps and opportunities in data science across Columbia's campuses.

The Data Science Institute (DSI) addresses gaps and opportunities in data science across Columbia University’s campuses while building data science expertise at all academic levels.

The DSI Scholars program provides undergraduate and master’s students an opportunity to work on research in data science. It is open to the entire Columbia community, and faculty representing a wide range of schools and departments contribute projects.

There are two tracks:
Track A connects students to Columbia faculty with full funding or matching funds from the program. Faculty may offer course credit for the projects.

Track B connects students to organizations outside of Columbia, including nonprofits and local government agencies, with the goal of using data science for social good. Students in the second track are called Data for Good Scholars.

In addition to their internship work, DSI Scholars and Data for Good Scholars attend workshops, training sessions, and enrichment activities as a cohort to learn about the research process, research integrity, scientific reproducibility, and data ethics.

There are two cycles per academic year, and each cycle matches between 15 and 40 students and faculty.

The Campus Connections program connects Columbia University researchers across campus to data science experts. Whether Columbia faculty or researchers are exploring ancient texts, image and sound libraries, public documents, genomes, chromatographs, bond yields, or social media interactions, our talented pool of data scientist experts, including undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, DSI research scientists, and faculty, are available to help extract meaning and value from datasets.

DSI has received 177 project requests from across the university since 2018. Requests are accepted on a rolling basis and routed to the appropriate level of data science expertise. For example, projects that require advanced data science expertise may be offered to DSI’s research scientists for potential collaboration opportunities.

Campus Connections projects are typically funded by the host researcher.