As more and more of what we do becomes data that is then collected, the ability to make sense of it has great value.
Brown University’s Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, through its supercomputer, is finding new ways to use data to help researchers discover ways to look at their fields from different perspectives.
At the recently concluded Davos World Economic Forum, four Brown faculty members spoke to that issue, giving concrete examples in their fields – neuroscience, archaeology and biology – of how using huge quantities of data can make a difference in solving problems.
It was clear from the moment that Brown announced the establishment of ICERM that it was going to be a feather in the university’s and the region’s cap.
But what was less obvious, from the outside at least, was that it would so quickly become a transformational link between basic mathematical research and tackling the world’s problems in new, hopefully more effective, ways.
Where to next? Let the data point the way. •