An article in Science Careers profiles activities in the University of Washington eScience Institute. Ed Lazowska, Bill Howe, Sarah Loebman, and Jevin West are quoted, as well as Greg Wilson from the Mozilla Foundation who taught a “Software Carpentry” course (a Python bootcamp for scientists) through the eScience Institute:
“Ed Lazowska, who holds the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at UW, believes that data-driven discovery will become the norm, as he told Science Careers in a recent interview. This new environment, he says, will create and reward researchers (like Loebman) who are well versed in both the methodologies of their specific fields and the applications of data science. He calls such people ‘pi-shaped’ because they have two full legs, one in each camp.
“‘All science is fast becoming what is called data science,’ says Bill Howe of UW’s eScience Institute. Today, there are sensors in gene sequencers, telescopes, forest canopies, roads, bridges, buildings, and point-of-sale terminals. Every ant in a colony can be tagged. The challenge is to extract knowledge from this vast quantity of data and transform it into something of value. Lately, Lazowska says, he has been hearing this refrain from researchers in engineering, the sciences, the social sciences, law, medicine, and even the humanities: ‘I am drowning in data and need help analyzing and managing it.'”