COVER STORY: Growing Innovation and Talent in the South Florida Community

Cover Story, Fall 2021, From the Director

by Nicholas Tsinoremas

August 30, 2021

from the director

With the start of a new academic year, the Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC) is poised to make significant contributions to research in many disciplines, while educating a new generation of data scientists. This issue of our magazine highlights several of those high-impact initiatives.

Julian Dallmeier, Nick Tsinoremas, and Vaseilos Stathias

Thanks to our world-class expertise and high-performance computing infrastructure, the University of Miami was chosen to be a new site in the National Science Foundation’s Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA). This is an international consortium of academic data science centers that supports technology innovation while enhancing the scientific and engineering workforce.

Through our Innovation Office, IDSC will serve as a catalyst for technology transfer to South Florida companies seeking commercial opportunities in fields as diverse as home health, smart cities, and environmental services. For example, our team is collaborating with Lid Vizion on an artificial-intelligence-based application to improve the handling of recycled materials and support the concept of the circular economy.

Other collaborative projects now in the planning stages include commercial partnerships focused on wastewater management, monitoring indoor air quality, and medical imagery.

As for education, applications continue to climb for our Master of Science in Data Science (MSDS) program with it multiple tracks to support personalized career paths. In the Spring, the program will offer two new tracks; Educational Measurement, and Statistics and Marketing, for a total of six unique data science programs. We also appreciate the support of our Industry Advisory Board and other organizations in providing externship opportunities that give our students real-world field experiences.

In addition to university-level collaborations, we are committed to working with Miami Dade College and Miami-Dade County Public Schools to introduce data science as a potential career. Our goal is to open the door for young men and women from all backgrounds and help grow the talent pipeline in our richly diverse community.

Nick in cursive

Nick Tsinoremas, PhD
idsc founding director | vice provost for research computing and data

PHOTO: Dr. Tsinoremas is pictured at center with PhD student Julian Dallmeier (on left, studying Alzheimer’s with a focus on machine learning approaches at the McKnight Brain Institute), and Vasileios “Vas” Stathias, PhD, who recently completed his doctoral studies in the Department of Human Genetics and Genomics studying the identification of targeted therapies for brain tumors. Vas is now a lead data scientist at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology.