New York Times

Columbia University recently held a symposium to introduce its new Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, a collection of interdisciplinary centers, including cybersecurity, financial analytics, health analytics, new media, and smart cities. The event featured presentations by Columbia professors as well as computer scientists from companies such as Google, Facebook, and Bloomberg on the potential of the technology in a range of fields. Although privacy issues did not play a significant role in the symposium, Google CIO Ben Fried said his biggest "concern is that the technology is way ahead of society,” suggesting risks associated with public rejection or runaway technology if only a limited number of people understand big data. To read further, please visit http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/the-potential-and-the-risks-of-data-science/.