Switzerland Launches a National Center for Data Science

Switzerland is creating a National Center for Data Science to foster innovation in data science, multidisciplinary research and open science. Today, the inauguration of the Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC) is taking place in Bern. Switzerland is launching a National Center for Data Science in order to innovate in the realm of data and computer science, and to provide an infrastructure for fostering multidisciplinary research and open science, with applications ranging from personalized health to environmental issues. It is a joint venture between EPFL and ETH Zürich with offices in both Lausanne and Zürich. The initiative will ensure that Switzerland possesses expertise and excellence in data science while striving to be globally competitive. A complex journey made simple Data science sits at the intersection of several academic disciplines including data management and engineering, statistics, machine learning, algorithms, optimization and visualization. It offers a new tool to social sciences, economics, medicine, environmental sciences, and others, by helping to understand and influence complex, real-world systems, and by providing insight into some of the most challenging problems of our time.