DATA FUTURES

SODAS Inaugural Lecture Series 2017

Data has become part of the basic fabric of social life in many different ways. What sorts of questions do we need to start asking in order to understand, prepare for, and shape our futures with and through digital data?

The Centre for Social Data Science (SODAS) at the University of Copenhagen is convening its inaugural Lecture Series on the theme of Data Futures. Speakers from different disciplines are asked to reflect on the most pressing questions for contemporary society as we face futures living with and through data. The lectures will be aimed at an interdisciplinary audience - all welcome.

The Centre for Social Data Science (SODAS) is pleased to announce its seventh lecture in the DATA FUTURES Lecture Series, on Friday 6 October 2017, 10.30am in Room 35.3.20, CSS Campus, UCPH.

The lecture will be given by Daniel Davis, PhD in computational design from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and lead researcher at WeWork, specializing in understanding the future of the workplace.

Please find the title and abstract of Daniel Davis' lecture below.

Architecture in the Age of Data

Our cities are giant Petri dishes where some buildings grow and thrive while others wane and crumble. Architects have theories about why certain buildings succeed, but we're not really sure, we don't really have the evidence. Today, as we gather ever increasing amounts of data about our buildings, machine learning is set to end this grand experiment, to allow us to identify why some buildings succeed and others fail.

Since it’s founding in 2010, WeWork has designed and constructed over 100 coworking spaces in 14 countries, making it one of the fastest growing companies in the world. In this presentation, Daniel Davis will showcase how WeWork is using machine learning to understand why some designs succeed when others fail. In particular, he’ll highlight how statistics and machine learning are impacting how architects work in a world full of uncertainty and data.