How Data Happened - A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms

Attend this invited conference talk by Chris Wiggins, Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics at Columbia University and Chief Data Scientist at The New York Times, delivered at the KDD 2025 Applied Data Science track. Explore insights from a leading expert who bridges academic research and industry practice, bringing perspectives from his roles as a founding member of Columbia's Data Science Institute executive committee and co-founder of hackNY, a nonprofit organizing student hackathons and startup internships since 2010. Learn from Wiggins' extensive background spanning theoretical physics (PhD from Princeton), applied mathematics, systems biology, and statistics, along with his recognition as a Fellow of the American Physical Society and recipient of Columbia's Avanessians Diversity Award. Gain valuable perspectives informed by his recent publications including "How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms" (co-authored with Matthew L. Jones, Norton Press 2023) and "Data Science in Context: Foundations, Challenges, Opportunities" (co-authored with Alfred Spector, Peter Norvig, and Jeanette Wing, Cambridge Press 2022), which examine the historical development and contemporary challenges of data science across academic and industry contexts.