Data science: An artificial ecosystem

This course aims to introduce students to the world of the data science via articles published in the Harvard Data Science Review, a global forum disseminating everything data science and data science for everyone. The course emphasizes the evolutionary nature of the data science enterprise as an artificial ecosystem, where the phrase artificial shares a similar connotation as it is in the phrase artificial intelligence (AI). However, unlike the common algorithmic or robotic depictions of AI, this course espouses a panoramic view of data science, from philosophical conceptualization of data to interpretation and policy implications of statistical findings and to the after-life use of data for addressing scientific replicability and reliability. Topics such as data privacy and individualized treatments are explored in depth to demonstrate the necessity of the panoramic approach. Questions such as what privacy or individuality is cannot escape philosophical contemplation; how to measure privacy or individuality demands careful sociological, computational, and statistical thinking; and how to protect privacy or assess the effectiveness of individualized treatments requires advanced data science theory and methods.