ABSTRACT

Recent decades have witnessed an explosive increase in data collection, driven by dramatic improvements in the size, capacity, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of data collection and storage technology, as well as a ubiquitous deployment of digital devices, and a broad transfer of human activity to the Internet. These days, online social networks and online markets provide fine-grained data on social and economic behavior; online media provide detailed data on the spread of information; and wearable devices provide personalized data on the state of humans as they navigate the physical world.

Our increased capabilities in data collection have also brought an increased penetration of data science to many fields of research and practice, including those that have traditionally been light in the collection and usage of data. Data analytics has entered virtually every aspect of business and government, while statistics and machine learning are now in the vocabulary of virtually all academic disciplines.