Obama’s Data Scientist Runs Social Good Program
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Political campaigns determine who runs government, but can campaign experience help navigate policy for health care, education and other big issues affecting society? Rayid Ghani, chief scientist for the most sophisticated, data-driven presidential campaign thus far — President Barack Obama’s re-election bid — hopes so.
His latest initiative is happening in the president’s adopted hometown of Chicago. The University of Chicago’s Computation Institute and Harris School of Public Policy is accepting applicants for a summer fellowship program that Mr. Ghani is spearheading. The “Data Science for Social Good” program will allow 35 to 45 students, most of them graduate-level, to apply their knowledge of statistics, data-mining, machine learning, computer science and other data-related skill sets to society’s pressing issues.
“My goal is to figure out how you help a lot of people by working on big data and analytics directed toward large social problems,” said Mr. Ghani, naming public safety, health care and education among them. Program fellows will pair with mentors starting June 1 to kick off what Mr. Ghani hopes to eventually become a larger, yearlong program.
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