NICO Initiatives

Through a variety of novel initiatives, NICO is providing the skills needed to go from data to knowledge in high demand jobs in industry, government and academia.

Data Science Initiative

NICO launched the Data Science Initiative in 2015 to foster data science research across the University. Please visit the Data Science Initiative website to learn more.

A tidal wave of digital information has ushered in a new era of computing and analysis in the 21st century. Data science is affecting every aspect of Northwestern’s learning and research enterprises — among other things, leading to breakthroughs in precision medicine; contributing to a revolution in astronomy with profound insights about the universe; transforming the scope and depth of social science research with significant policy implications, and fueling research about consumer behavior that is affecting how companies do business.

Metropolitan Chicago Data-science Corps (MCDC)

MCDC is an NSF funded initiative that is administered by NICO. It is a collaboration of community organizations and data science students and experts from multiple Chicago-area universities and colleges. Please visit the MCDC website for more information.

MCDC aims to:

Facilitate the transformation of data into knowledge that is inspiring for and actionable by a community organization
Contribute to an agile, representative, and inclusive data-science workforce via designing and implementing cross-disciplinary training:mentoring and opportunities for diverse students to acquire broad and transferable analytical skills,
Build a community of educators, researchers, and students that can work with communities to discover and disseminate best practices in data science,
Facilitate access to data, real-world data-science projects, and data-science training materials for the common good.