The “interdisciplinary approach” is something that has been lauded for decades for its ability to break down silos and create new integrated approaches to research.
For Munther Dahleh, founding director of MIT Institute of Data, Systems and Society (IDSS), showing the community that data science and statistics can transcend individual disciplines and form a new holistic approach to addressing complex societal challenges has been crucial to the institute’s success.
“From the beginning, it was critical that we recognize the areas of data science, statistics, AI and, in a way, computing, as transdisciplinary,” says Dahleh, who is the William A. Coolidge Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Science. “We made that point over and over again: These are areas that fit into your field. It is not our; this organization is here for everyone.”
On April 14 and 15, researchers from across MIT and beyond came together to celebrate the achievements and impact that IDSS has had in research and education since its inception in 2015. Taking the place of IDSS’s annual statistics and data science conference, SDSCon, the celebration also doubled as a way to recognize Dahleh for his work creating and executing the IDSS vision. as he prepares to leave office. the directorship of her this summer.
In addition to talks and panels on statistics and computing, intelligent systems, automation, and artificial intelligence, conference participants discussed topics ranging from climate change, healthcare, and misinformation. Nobel Prize winner and IDSS affiliate Professor Esther Duflo spoke about large-scale immunization efforts, former MLK Visiting Professor Craig Watkins joined a panel on fairness and justice in AI, and Director IDSS associate, Alberto Abadie, spoke about synthetic controls for policy evaluation. Other policy issues were explored through lightning talks, including by students from the Technology and Policy Program (TPP) within the IDSS.
A place to call home
IDSS’s list of accomplishments over the past eight years is long and growing. since creation a house for 21street statistics of the century at MIT after other failed attempts, to the creation of a new PhD that prepares the trilingual student expert in data science and social sciences in the context of a domain, to play a key role in determining an effective process for Covid tests in the early days of the pandemic, the IDSS has made its mark on MIT. More recently, the IDSS launched an initiative using big data to help effect structural changes and normative change towards racial equityand will continue to explore societal challenges through the lenses of statistics, the social sciences, and science and engineering.
“I am very proud of what we have done and of all the people who have contributed to this. The leadership team has been phenomenal in their commitment and creativity,” says Dahleh. “I always say that it doesn’t take just one person, it takes the people to do what we’ve done, and I’m very proud of that.”
Before the institute’s formation, Dahleh and others at MIT met to answer a key question: How would MIT prepare for the future of systems and data?
“Data science is a complex area because it is somehow everywhere and belongs to everyone, similar to stats and AI,” says Dahleh. “The most important part of creating an organization to support it was making it clear that it was an organization for everyone.” The answer the team gave was to build an Institute: a department that could intersect with all the other departments and schools.
While Dahleh and other committee members were creating this plan for the future, the events that would lead to early IDSS hires like Caroline Uhler joining the team were also beginning to take shape. Uhler, now an MIT professor of computer science and co-director of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center at the Broad Institute, was a panelist at the celebration who discussed statistics and human health.
In 2015, Uhler was a faculty member at the Austrian Institute of Science and Technology looking to return to the U.S. “I was looking for positions in all different kinds of statistics-related departments, including electrical engineering and computer science, which were not related to my degree,” says Uhler. “What really brought me to MIT was Munther’s vision of building a modern type of statistics and the unique opportunity to be part of building the statistics that should move forward.”
The breadth of the Center for Statistics and Data Science has given it a strong and unique character that makes it an attractive collaborative environment at MIT. “A lot of the impact of IDSS has been giving people like me a home,” adds Uhler. “By building a statistics institute that sits in every school rather than being housed in a single department, it has created a home for everyone interested in the field.”
filling the empty spaces
For Ali Jadbabaie, a former IDSS associate director and another early IDSS hire, being in the right place at the right time put him at the center of it all. A control theory expert and network scientist by training, Jadbabaie first came to MIT during a sabbatical from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania.
“My time at MIT coincided with the early discussions about the formation of the IDSS, and given my experience, they asked me to stay on and help with its creation,” says Jadbabaie. He is now the head of MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and he spoke at the celebration about a new MIT specialization in climate system science and engineering.
One of the first critical achievements of the IDSS was the creation of a PhD Program in Engineering and Social Systems (SES), which has the goal of educating and fostering the success of a new type of doctoral student, says Jadbabaie.
“We realized we had this opportunity to educate a new type of PhD student who was familiar with data science mathematics and statistics, as well as understanding a domain (infrastructure, climate, political polarization) in the problems arise,” he says. . “This program would provide training in statistics and data science, the mathematics of data science, and a branch of social science that is relevant to your domain.”
“SES has been filling a void,” adds Jadbabaie. “We wanted to bring quantitative reasoning to areas of the social sciences, particularly when they interact with complex engineering systems.”
“My first year at MIT really broadened my horizon in terms of what was available and what was exciting,” says Manxi Wu, a member of the first cohort of students in the SES program after starting the Master of Science in Transportation program. (MST). . “My advisor introduced me to a number of interesting topics at the intersection of game theory, economics, and engineering systems, and in my second year I realized that my interest was really in systems of social scale, with the transportation as my preferred application area. when I think about how to have an impact in the real world.”
Wu, now an assistant professor in Cornell’s School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, was a panelist at the Celebration session on intelligent infrastructure systems. She says the beauty of the SES program lies in its ability to create common ground among groups of students and researchers who have different interests in applications but share an enthusiasm for improving their technical skills.
“While we may be working in very different application areas, core methodologies such as mathematical tools for data science and probabilities optimization create a common language,” says Wu. “We are all capable of speaking technical language, and our diversified interests give us even more to talk about.”
In addition to the doctoral program, IDSS has helped bring quality MIT programming to people around the world with its MicroMasters Program in Statistics and Data Science (SDS), which recently celebrated the certification of more than 1,000 students. The MicroMasters is just one offering on the newly minted IDSSxa collection of online learning opportunities for students with different skill levels and interests.
“The brand impact of what MIT-IDSS does around the world has been great,” Dahleh says. “In addition, we have created smaller online programs for continuing education in data science and machine learning, which I think is critical to educating the wider community as well.”
Hopes for the future
Through all of its accomplishments, IDSS’s core mission has never changed.
“The belief was always to create an institute focused on how data science can be used to solve pressing societal problems,” Dahleh says. “IDSS’s organizational structure as an MIT institute has allowed it to promote data and systems as a transdisciplinary area that integrates across domains to support its mission. This reverse ownership structure will continue to strengthen IDSS’s presence at MIT and make it an essential unit within the Schwarzman College of Computing.”
As Dahleh prepares to step down, and Professor Martin Wainwright prepares to take his (very large) place as director, Dahleh’s colleagues say the real key to IDSS’s success began with his passion and vision.
“Creating a new academic unit within MIT is practically impossible,” says Jadbabaie. “It requires structural changes, as well as someone who has a strong understanding of multiple areas, who knows how to get people to work together collectively, and who has a mission.”
“The most important thing is that it was inclusive,” he adds. “He didn’t try to create a door around himself and say these people are in and these people are not. I don’t think this would have ever happened without Munther at the helm.”
