Research activities in 5 interconnected “pillars”
MIDAS focuses on five pillars within its overall effort to support data science and artificial intelligence (AI) research. Across these pillars, MIDAS promotes responsible research practices, supports the adoption of new data types and methodologies, and facilitates convergence science. The pillars will change over time: current pillars will be retired or shift focus, and new pillars established. Furthermore, these pillars are interconnected where possible, to maximize the synergies between them and leverage the interdisciplinary MIDAS community and the collaborative spirit U-M is known for.
In addition to supporting research within the pillars, MIDAS fosters connections and collaborations in data science and AI for the entire University, maintains a large umbrella covering all relevant research areas, and supports an inclusive community of researchers. MIDAS also continues to promote cutting-edge methodological development as the foundation for data science and AI.
For more information or to participate in any of the activities, contact: midas-contact@umich.edu
Responsible Research Pillar: Enhancing Scientific and Societal Impact
MIDAS collaborates with our researchers to develop foundational principles, methodology and tools, and deploy such tools for the ethical use of data and algorithms and to improve the reproducibility and replicability of scientific findings.
Responsible Research Current ActivitiesData Pillar: Measuring and Improving Society
Societal transformations have complicated traditional survey methods for data collection, while a plethora of new data sources are creating opportunities to measure human behaviors and the human social condition. MIDAS supports the development and use of data science and AI methods to better understand society through new data types such as text, video, sensor and digital trace data. Current activities include:
Current Activities with DataAnalytics Pillar: Transforming Health Interventions
Health intervention research and implementation is one of the biggest users, as well as inspirations, of cutting-edge data science and AI methods. MIDAS collaborates with campus partners to enable the adoption of cutting-edge analytics and modeling of complex data to boost U-M’s biomedical and healthcare research. Current activities include the following:
Current Activities with AnalyticsAI Pillar: AI for Science and Engineering
AI methods are revolutionizing research through being powerful tools for many steps of the research workflow, and through automating and accelerating the entire research workflow. We catalyze creative and transformative applications of AI with the potential to lead to major scientific breakthroughs; and enable a broader U-M research community to adopt AI in imagining, planning, executing, and supporting research applications across a range of science and engineering domains. Current activities include the following:
Current Activities with AIEmerging Pillar: Cultivating New Strengths
We support team activities in strategic research areas that have the potential to grow into pillars. The focus is on areas that are, or are expected to be, national priorities and / or U-M strengths, and can be significantly boosted with data science and AI. Naturally, activities in this pillar are exploratory, and a strong focus will emerge with time. Current activities include the following:
Current Activities with Emerging Areas