Abstract

The conference will feature Professor Gunnar Carlsson of Stanford University and Ayasdi Inc. as the Principal Lecturer. Professor Carlsson will deliver a series of ten lectures introducing participants to the fast-emerging field of Topological Data Analysis, which employs many of the techniques commonly used in topology, the study of shape, to analyze massive and complex data sets across multiple application domains. The conference will benefit a broad group of participants as data science is rapidly establishing itself as an interdisciplinary discipline with many high-impact applications. Main targets of the lecture series and the ensuing monograph will be applications to the medical sciences, including, e.g., better targeting and prediction of diseases and improved patient care, though the lectures will benefit a far larger constituency. The great majority of the NSF-supported participants will be recruited from early career researchers, graduate students, minorities, and women.