About

BIDS is a central hub of data-intensive research, open source software, and data science training programs at UC Berkeley.

Our programs and initiatives are designed to facilitate collaboration across an increasingly diverse and active data science community of domain experts from the life, social, and physical sciences, as well as methodological experts from computer science, statistics, and applied mathematics. Since its launch in 2013, BIDS has cultivated an environment of open inquiry and discovery for data-intensive research.  As an integral part of UC Berkeley’s Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS), launched in 2019, we continue to seek new and creative ways to cross traditional academic boundaries and engage a diverse community of researchers representing a wide array of disciplines.
  • Research: BIDS supports faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate/undergraduate research in a variety of fields in the life, health, social, and physical sciences, the humanities, and in computer science, statistics, and applied mathematics. 
  • Software: BIDS contributes to a number of open source, open science, and open data resource communities in support of academic research.
  • Training: BIDS training programs reflect our commitment to augment degree programs and provide valuable, accessible resources that expand collaboration opportunities for the campus community.

BIDS 190 Doe

Leadership

BIDS has a highly participative governance and management model, which includes our entire research and professional staff and welcomes our fellows. BIDS is led by a Faculty Director, working with an Executive Director.  A Faculty Council represents Berkeley and other UC faculty in the shared governance of the Institute.  In consultation with the BIDS Directors, the Council provides oversight for BIDS to fulfill its mission.  

Directors

  • Saul Perlmutter: Faculty Director, Berkeley Institute for Data Science; Director, Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics; Professor, Department of Physics, UC Berkeley; 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physics
  • Heather Haveman: Associate Faculty Director, Berkeley Institute for Data Science; Professor, Sociology and Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
  • Ashish Sahni: Executive Director, Berkeley Institute for Data Science

Faculty Council

History

Since its launch in 2013, BIDS has enhanced data-driven discovery through cross-disciplinary research and training programs, and by empowering researchers to be more effective by creating new data science methods, tools, partnerships, and career paths. BIDS was made possible by grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, along with generous support from UC Berkeley. The Institute is one of three Moore-Sloan Data Science Environments (MSDSE) — along with the data science organizations at the University of Washington and New York University — and the Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA), which has grown directly from these efforts, now continues to make substantive contributions across an active and fast-growing nationwide community of academic data science practitioners. BIDS continues to be recognized globally for cross-disciplinary research and training in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.​

Supporters

Industry Partners

We thank our Industry Partners for their affiliation with us,  and in particular for their support of our research endeavors and workforce development.

  • Accenture Applied Intelligence
  • Goldman Sachs
  • John Deere
  • Johnson & Johnson / Janssen
  • Microsoft
  • Siemens
  • State Street

Founding Support

We are indebted to the University of California Berkeley Library for its ongoing provision of support for the BIDS community to convene at Doe Memorial Library, where we enjoy learning together and welcoming others.  We also remain grateful to our primary supporters as they have enabled BIDS to play a major role in bringing data science to the forefront of academic research and training at Berkeley.

  • Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation 
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Academic and Laboratory Partners

BIDS appreciates the support of these academic and research partners, in particular for their investment in BIDS Data Science Fellowships.

  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • UCSF Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute

Campus Community

The network of data-intensive units at Berkeley has many nodes, and we thank the following institutes, centers, and programs for collaborating to energize the network together.

  • Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITTS) 
  • Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) 
  • Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society (CSTMS) 
  • Consortium for Data Analytics in Risk (CDAR) 
  • Data Science Education Program (DSEP) 
  • Data Sciences for the 21st Century (DS421)
  • FODA Institute (Foundations of Data Analysis)
  • Guizhou Berkeley Big Data Innovation Research Center (GBIC)
  • Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) 
  • Social Science Data Laboratory (D-Lab)

Membership

BIDS continually seeks to expand our data science environment and welcome more collaborators who share our commitment to continually stretch the limits of data-driven discovery by creating and sharing innovatory research practices, solutions, and tools to benefit society, science, and the economy.  Those interested in discussing affiliation with the Institute are invited to learn about membership and sponsorship, through which your organization can engage with and support the world-class researchers, educators, and students advancing data science at UC Berkeley. Please contact BIDS Executive Director Ashish Sahni (asahni@berkeley.edu) for more information about BIDS' membership opportunities.