The digital revolution is all around us, influencing almost every aspect of our personal and professional lives.
This digital revolution is an ongoing explosion of change, creating unprecedented energies—and we are convinced that the disciplines of the arts and sciences are uniquely suited to harness those energies.
To cite just a few examples from within our faculty: Associate Professor of Computer Science Sharon Goldberg studies network security, making use of tools from theory (cryptography, algorithms), and networking (measurement, modeling, simulation) to pinpoint, understand, and solve the critical problems of deploying new security technologies. Assistant Professor of Sociology Jessica Simes uses digital mapping to represent incarceration rates in different parts of cities, making correlations between incarceration and racial segregation. As the Associate Provost for Computing and Data Sciences, Azer Bestavros leads BU’s efforts in data sciences.
Meanwhile, we are blurring the lines between the computer sciences and the humanities by actively developing the digital humanities, through the work of experts like art historian Professor Jodi Cranston. Her digital project “Mapping Titian” seeks to visualize the provenance of Titian’s paintings from the sixteenth century to the present. Archaeology Professor Andrea Berlin has developed the Levantine Ceramics Project: an ambitious big-data web application devoted to assembling and cataloguing a worldwide collection of ceramics of the Levant.
In each of these examples, the challenges will only increase. But the rewards will keep CAS in the vanguard of liberal arts learning.