About

“Data Science” now permeates research in nearly all disciplines. The pervasiveness of interconnectivity on our persons and in our homes, the capabilities of high-performance computers, the emergence of smart infrastructure, and the Internet of “everything” is changing the way we do research in nearly every field of study.

It is estimated that the amount of data produced worldwide over the next years will be twice as much as humans generated since the dawn of civilization. In order to address this opportunity, the University of Florida created the Informatics Institute, a campus-wide initiative aimed at putting our researchers at the forefront of rapid developments in data science and its applications. The Institute’s purpose is to facilitate leading-edge informatics research across campus, focusing on informatics techniques and technologies as well as applications in biomedical and life science, engineered systems, the physical sciences, social science, humanities and education.

Future informatics research at UF will use genetic information to predict disease, analyze high-resolution satellite images to detail crop performance, and accelerate the computation of complex behavior in engineered systems. The Informatics Institute will engage the broad UF community and provide a significant advantage not only in the high-tech business of computation and communication, but in health care, engineering design, retail, scientific discovery, and a multitude of other fields where the effective leveraging of massive data resources is vital to success in global competition.

Thrust Areas

The Informatics Institute consists of four interrelated thrust areas:

Informatics Techniques and Technologies

• Research into the hardware, software, algorithms, and mathematical approaches needed to develop the next generation techniques and technologies for Big Data. This also includes supporting infrastructure for computation, bandwidth, and storage.

Biomedical and Life Science Informatics

• Use of informatics to address fundamental questions in genetics, genomics, biodiversity, environment, agricultural science, as well as its application for improved human health outcomes.
• This area is closely aligned with the Genetics Institute and Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

Informatics for Engineered Systems and the Physical Sciences

• Application of intense computation and complex informatics to understand and design complex engineered systems, and to uncover the fundamental nature of our physical world and universe.

Informatics in Social Science, Humanities, and Education

• Leveraging the explosion of data in understanding people, culture, political development, education, and human behavior.

Vision

The vision of the UFII is to provide support for UF aculty to collaborate toward the creation and application of information processing and decision-making systems, which are driven by the greatest challenges facing society today, leverage next-generation computing technology and analytical methods, and provide insights that position UF as a leader in ongoing research endeavors. The UFII will be internationally recognized for informatics innovations that integrate discoveries across disciplines and revolutionize how knowledge is generated and applied in practical settings, while providing and unparalleled comprehensive educational environment to UF students.