Engagement and Diversity in the World of Data Science

While data science has without a doubt proven its enormous potential over the last decade or so, the new field is still trying to find its place in academia and society at large. In the 2019 spring lecture series, The Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science (SODAS) has invited scholars that will present their work that in one aspect or another address questions of, and experiments with, diversity and public engagement in the world of data science.


Quantifying Performance and Success in Science and Art

Our first speaker of the spring lecture series is Roberta Sinatra, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, IT University Copenhagen.  

Abstract

Performance, representing the objectively measurable achievements in a certain domain of activity, like the publication record of a scientist or the winning record of an athlete, captures the actions of an individual entity. In contrast, success, captured by impact or visibility, is a collective measure, representing a community’s reaction and acceptance of an individual entity’s performance. We are often driven by the belief that the detection of extraordinary performance is sufficient to predict exceptional success. However, the link between these two measures, while often taken for granted, is actually far from being understood. Indeed, even experts of performance assessment are notoriously bad at predicting long-term success. Nevertheless, differently from performance, success is quantifiable and predictable: given its collective nature, its signatures can be uncovered from the many pieces of data around us using the tools of network and data science. In this talk I will focus on success in science and art as a way to testing our ability to measure and predict success. I will discuss the role of luck in achieving success, and will address the relation between performance and success in a variety of settings, highlighting the challenges of gauging performance through success.

The lecture will take place at SODAS' new location in building 1, 2nd floor, room 26 (1.2.26) of the CSS Campus, University of Copenhagen, from 11.00 am to 12.30 pm.

If you have questions or want to know more, please write Agnete Vienberg Hansen at avh@econ.ku.dk.