Creating and analyzing data—data science—should not be isolated in a computational silo. Anticipating a world of data applications across the University community, Pitt’s Responsible Data Science Initiative is bringing data science to every field across Pitt, including those that have not typically used computation but are now generating and influenced by data on an unprecedented scale.

To effectively promote equity and improve opportunities for marginalized communities, the world needs all hands on deck, including technologists. Historically, the nature of academic work and the identities of those who undertake mathematical and computational research have resulted in algorithmic and resource allocation systems that do not integrate the perspectives of people who experience them. Sera Linardi is leading efforts to break down silos and integrate lived experience and grassroots voices into mathematics and computer science for social issues.

Technology moves fast, David Hickton says—but the law moves slowly. Hickton describes this as the driving principle behind his work. As a United States attorney in 2014, he led a first-of-its-kind cybercrime prosecution for theft of U.S. intellectual property against a unit of the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China. In 2017, he became the founder of the Pitt Cyber Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security.

Alison Langmead wants the world to think differently about artificial intelligence (AI). She doesn’t even like the phrase “artificial intelligence.” She’d prefer people to focus instead on the humanity in AI so that they better understand the term and quell concerns that these technologies could run amok.