Why data studies should no longer be restricted to STEM fields and what does this mean for the future of education?
As I write this post sitting in a café, I cannot help overhear the conversation on the next table. Two immaculately dressed people in corporate attire are discussing how to make paper boats using the tissue papers on the table. Yes, the miss-match of the conversation and their clothes caught my attention. I expected to hear buzzwords like blockchain and urban mobility. But their mindless chat led to one of them sharing a story about a friend who works at NASA and creates his own origami designs that are actively used by NASA to solve some of their construction problems.
A good example of design meets science meets business!
Data is the versatile material of the 21st century
London Fashion Week is currently hosting the Blossoming Fashion Conversation installation where it will showcase a visualization of the reach that fashion posts, news and reviews have on social media during and after the London Fashion Week. Visualising topics like Sustainability, Model Health, the Luxury & Streetwear Climates, Designer & Production Heritage, Emerging Talent, Diversity in the Industry and Overall Innovation, the design firm Holition along with Google, Pulsar and Condé Nast will immerse visitors in informative art derived from data analytics.
In the US, Biobot Analytics, a data-driven startup aims to analyze data from sewers to gauge the health of a community. Their first product addresses the opioid crisis by measuring the opioid and drug metabolites in a sewage stream and help cities “assess the scope of the epidemic (and) allocate resources.”
In the field of healthcare, Migraine Buddy is a data-driven app that can predict an oncoming migraine with 90 per cent accuracy. It monitors the patient and uses an algorithm to detect issues.
From fashion to governance to healthcare, what is common between these projects across various industries is that they are all data-driven initiatives that use analytics, automation and citizen experience to innovatively solve issues.
To understand why these projects have a unique place in time, think about the Renaissance and the pre-Renaissance period. Materials like clay, stone, oil paints, and watercolours were used to paint the Sistine Chapel, sculpt the David and Goliath statue and build the Mayan temples. But seldom were these materials used in Governance or Medicine. Essentially, these materials were the staple of the art, design, architecture and the engineering industries only.
Cut-to now — 2018, when technology is a versatile, malleable medium that accommodates the creation of immersive data-driven experiences, solve urban issues and elevate the accuracy and promptness of healthcare services.
Thus, it is the first time in history that we have a material versatile enough to be a medium of expression and problem solving and creation, not just for the arts but also the STEM fields and social sciences including governance and public policy.
What does this mean for the future of education?
It is not uncommon for tech and consulting firms to acquire design companies to create a collaborative playground for business, technology and creative thinking.
Data Semiotician Angelica Quintero in her article Data Analysis as a Creative Act writes, ‘It [data analysis] requires abstraction to represent complex and multi-dimensional phenomena into simple and comprehensive models, it requires imagination to explore multiple avenues to reach a solution, it requires curating to make sure results tell incisive and engaging stories to internal and external client.’
Likewise, by opening up scalability, data integration, hybrid cloud storage, analytics and data policy subjects to streams beyond STEM, we can initiate a data-driven collaborative approach to problem-solving at the learning level and the practice can then be carried into the workplace.
The Urban Dynamics Lab and The Bartlett Center for Advanced Spatial Analytics at the UCL, and the programs at MIT Media Lab have opened data studies to media and spatial design. Similarly, the field of policy has embraced data with the General Data Protection Regulation being a good example of the outcome. These are the first steps to a data-driven world. But what can truly open up avenues to data-driven solutions is by restructuring the curriculum and enabling data studies vis-à-vis art, design, economics, humanity, sustainability, business and law.
It is important to think about a data-centric curriculum because organisations are now investing in their workforce to be better equipped for changes that come with analytics and automation. So why not begin at the university level?
