We will look at what quality standards could and should be in data science, and how to enable communities and users to press for them. With suggestions led by:

Tracey Brown, OBE , Director, Sense About Science

V.S. Subrahmanian , Distinguished professor in cybersecurity, technology, and society , Dartmouth College

Chris Volpe , Executive director, Science Counts

About the session

We’re in the middle of a ‘data revolution’: large, detailed datasets and complex algorithms are being deployed to make predictions from which investments lead to economic growth to who is likely to commit a further crime, and to automate processes from the detection of malignant moles to the elimination of bad software code.

So how do we expand our ability to question the quality of evidence to meet this - as the public, research bodies, commissioners or decision makers? How do we determine the reliability of data science or AI? What kind of testing should be expected, and what are our reliability thresholds?

Swamped by concerns about privacy and disruption, issues of quality and rigor in data science have largely been neglected. These are essential questions. We cannot meaningfully assess applications without them, or ask whether we are maximising data science benefits for research and society.

This is a meeting over lunch to explore ways to address this, and determine the commitments that are needed globally and in different communities.

About the discussion leaders

Tracey Brown OBE is the director of Sense about Science, a charity that works to ensure the public interest in sound science and evidence is recognized in public life and policy making. The Times named Tracey as one of the ten most influential figures in science policy in Britain, and she is the author of papers, periodicals and books on accountability for evidence, including 'Playing by the Rules' (2013, 2016).

V.S. Subrahmanian is the Dartmouth College distinguished professor in cybersecurity, technology, and society and one of the world leaders in design, analysis, and application of big data analytics to real world problems. He has turned his hand to a variety of problems including predicting systemic banking crises in countries, predicting terrorist group behavior, predicting whether Android apps are malicious, and predicting the spread of malware in countries. He previously cofounded the Lab for Computational Cultural Dynamics and founded the Center for Digital International Government at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Christopher Volpe is the executive director and a founding board member of ScienceCounts. With an academic background in physical chemistry and two decades of private sector experience in marketing and branding, Dr. Volpe is a leading voice in developing data-driven social marketing strategies to foster stronger connections between the scientific community and the general public. Previously, he was the president and co-founder of Prismatic Laser Programs LLC, the nation’s leading provider of STEM-based assembly programs to elementary and middle schools.