On the afternoon of October 17, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science at Tsinghua University (hereinafter referred to as "the Institute") convened its inaugural Management Committee meeting at Lü Dalong Building. Management Committee members Wu Huaqiang, Chen Songxi, Hou Lin, Li Feiyue, Li Guoliang, Liu Yiqun, and Zhang Qiang attended the meeting. Institute members Deng Ke, Yang Ying, and Yu Shen participated as non-voting attendees. The meeting engaged in in-depth discussions on institutional partnerships, team deployment, reactivation of the Statistical Consulting Center, and future priority breakthrough directions, reaching a series of constructive consensus.
At the meeting, Dean Chen Songxi reported on the progress of institutional partnerships. Currently, the Institute has formally signed partnership agreements with the Department of Automation and the School of Medicine, and added two new Management Committee members—marking a critical step forward in interdisciplinary integration and laying a solid organizational foundation for subsequent cross-disciplinary research.
Addressing major national needs and disciplinary frontiers, the meeting established four research teams as the first batch: the Intelligent Healthcare Modeling Team, the Spatiotemporal Big Data and Governance Team, the Digital Humanities Collaborative Research Team, and the Geoscience Data Science Team. Each team will fully leverage Tsinghua's comprehensive multi-disciplinary advantages, focus on the core of "data science" cross-innovation, and concentrate on breakthroughs in intelligent healthcare, governance, cultural heritage, and earth system science—striving to produce a batch of leading research outcomes.
To strengthen research support services, the meeting held special discussions on reactivating the Statistical Consulting Center and building a university-level statistical service platform. Dean Chen Songxi reviewed the development history and phased achievements of the Statistical Consulting Center. Participants engaged in in-depth exchanges and reached consensus on key issues such as organizational construction and personnel support systems, unanimously endorsing its functional positioning of "supporting fundamental research and serving faculty and students." Going forward, statistical consulting services will adapt to the deep integration trend of statistics, big data, and artificial intelligence, proactively align with the university's "AI Empowerment" initiative, continuously optimize service content and formats, and provide high-quality data analysis support for faculty and students across the university.
During the meeting, Management Committee members Zhang Qiang, Li Feiyue, and Li Guoliang respectively introduced their ongoing research work and future integration directions with the Institute. Management Committee Chair Wu Huaqiang noted in his concluding remarks that marine big data statistics and intelligent healthcare represent broad prospects with tremendous potential. The Institute should coordinate high-quality resources both within and outside the university, actively promote cross-domain interdisciplinary research, deepen cooperation with Laoshan Laboratory and Tsinghua AI Hospital, and strive to achieve innovative breakthroughs in the two major directions of "marine governance" and "intelligent healthcare"—contributing to national strategic needs and disciplinary development.
Group photo of the attendees
(From the back row, from left: Yu Sheng, Hou Lin, Yang Ying, Zhang Qiang, Li Guoliang, Li Feiying, Deng Ke)
Front row, from left: Wu Huaqiang, Chen Songxi, Liu Yiqun
