July 22, 2024 — The University of California Board of Regents has approved the creation of a new School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences (SCIDS) at UC San Diego, a significant step forward in UC San Diego’s long history of leading innovation and education in artificial intelligence, computing and data science, fields that are rapidly transforming modern life.
San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego
One of UC San Diego’s 12 schools and the fourth to join in the 21st century, SCIDS brings together faculty from across disciplines to improve the human condition through a deeper understanding of how data shapes society and prepare the next generation of highly skilled workers to drive advances in artificial intelligence.
“The School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences embodies UC San Diego’s commitment to addressing one of the most pressing needs of our time: transforming data into actionable knowledge,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Computing and data literacy are key to meeting the needs of our students and the state of California, advancing important areas of research like the future of artificial intelligence, and strengthening the University’s public service mission.”
SCIDS will be energized by 8,000 students, including those entering through a strong pipeline from community colleges, and more than 50 faculty members across 16 academic fields.
The department will play a key role in advancing data science and cutting-edge computing applications across all disciplines, and will act as a catalyst for strengthening collaborations between existing faculties, departments and disciplines, and for establishing new areas of research.
By moving data science from the classroom to research and the broader workplace, the school prepares students for their careers by providing opportunities for direct engagement with industry and government partners, including emergency responders, municipal, state and national resource management organizations and nonprofits. Students will learn firsthand how data science can enable organizations to better address societal problems ranging from climate change mitigation and social justice issues to technological challenges and healthcare.
“Pursuing collaborative research opportunities and creating interdisciplinary educational programs are an integral part of the UC San Diego community,” said Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth H. Simmons. “The School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences is the latest example of our commitment to expanding knowledge in a burgeoning field and working across disciplines to improve our community and the world. It fits perfectly into our educational structure.”
Foundational Pillars of the New School
The new school combines the strengths of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), a national leader in high-performance, data-intensive computing, and the Halicioğlu Data Science Institute (HDSI), a pioneering interdisciplinary research institute advancing education and research in data science and AI.
These resources form the foundational pillars of SCIDS, enabling UC San Diego to support the growing demand for data science and computing expertise across the university’s research and education missions.
As part of a national effort to address the shortage of advanced computing resources, the National Science Foundation (NSF) established SDSC, a subsidiary of General Atomics, in the 1980s, which transformed the academic scientific community, including at the University of California, San Diego.
In its 40-year history, SDSC has provided computing resources to a variety of national stakeholders and federal agencies, state agencies addressing crises such as extreme weather and wildfires, the University of California, San Diego and the University of California system, and provided researchers with in-house computing and data resources to accelerate scientific discovery.
“UC San Diego’s new department will expand societal impact through translational computing, information science, and data science, and bring AI education to community colleges and colleges of education in California and across the nation through our AI infrastructure,” said SDSC Director Frank Wurtwein, a founding faculty member of HDSI. “Combining our strengths with those of HDSI will optimize our leadership in science, technology, education, and social innovation.”
UC San Diego’s engineering and mathematics-based depth in tech-related fields was further enhanced when the university founded HDSI in 2018 with philanthropic support from computer science and engineering alumnus Taner Halicioğlu.
Developing the next generation of machine learning engineers and data analysts, HDSI brings together interdisciplinary teams of faculty and researchers from disciplines ranging from computer science to communications to medicine. These researchers collaborate to explore new computational methods, new mathematical models, and the social and ethical implications of data science.
For example, HDSI is home to the NSF-funded AI Institute for Learning-Enabled Optimization at Scale (TILOS), which is researching AI optimization to advance chip design, networking, and contextual robotics.
“HDSI and SDSC share a unique challenge of building interdisciplinary academics and research. Our coming together under SCIDS will create new synergies and realize enormous new possibilities in developing talent in emerging fields including artificial intelligence,” said HDSI Director Rajesh Gupta.
UC San Diego’s undergraduate major in Data Science was initially developed and taught by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 2016 before the degree program was transferred to HDSI. HDSI graduated its first bachelor’s students in 2020 and began its master’s and doctoral programs in 2022. HDSI also offers a minor in Data Science, has a growing student population, and is preparing to launch a joint MS-MD program with Health Sciences. HDSI currently has 51 faculty appointments. Student graduations include 814 bachelor’s students between 2020 and 2024 and 22 master’s students between 2022 and 2024. One doctoral student graduated in 2024.
Source: University of California, San Diego
