Data Science for Social Good and Public Policy

Join us in Boston for a special lecture by Rayid Ghani, Director of the Center for Data Science & Public Policy and a Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Computation Institute. 

Can data science help reduce policy violence and misconduct? can it help prevent children from getting lead poisoning? Can it help cities better target limited resources to improve lives of citizens? We're all aware of the hype around data science and related buzzwords right now, but turning this hype into social impact takes cross-disciplinary training, teams, and methods. In this talk, I'll discuss lessons learned from our work at University of Chicago while working on dozens of data science projects over the past few years with non-profits and governments on high-impact public policy and social challenges in criminal justice, public health, education, economic development, public safety, workforce training, and urban infrastructure. 

The evening will conclude with a reception where attendees can continue the conversation.

RSVP by Monday, January 15, 2018. 

Schedule of Activities 

5:30 pm - Doors Open

6:00 - 7:00 pm - Program

7:00 - 8:00 pm - Reception

About the Speaker

Rayid Ghani is the Director of the Center for Data Science & Public Policy and a Senior Fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy and the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago. Rayid is a reformed computer scientist and wanna-be social scientist, but mostly just wants to increase the use of data-driven approaches in solving large public policy and social challenges. Among other areas, Rayid works with governments and non-profits in policy areas such as health, criminal justice, education, public safety, economic development, and urban infrastructure. Rayid is also passionate about teaching practical data science and started the Data Science for Social Good Fellowship at UChicago that trains computer scientists, statisticians, and social scientists from around the world to work on data science problems with social impact. Rayid also teaches data science and machine learning class at Harris and is actively involved in the joint Computer Science and Public Policy masters program at the University of Chicago.

Questions? Contact Harris Events.