Hub for Equity Impact

The CDS Hub for Equity Impact convenes and supports BU and community partners to increase our understanding of societal inequities through computing and data science and build solutions that make a difference. The scope of the CDS Impact Hub on Equity is intentionally broad in recognition of the intersectionality of the issues related to inequity including race, gender and sexual identity, physical and mental ability, ethnicity and immigrant status.

The CDS Hub for Equity Impact builds upon BU Spark!’s years of implementing public interest technology projects on multiple prior engagements and initiatives, including those pursued under its programs in collaboration with local governments and non-profit organizations on applications ranging from combating human trafficking to judicial accountability. It also evolves from projects pursued at the Hariri Institute for Computing in collaboration with the city of Boston on applications ranging from gender pay equity to cloud-based smart-city applications in support of evidence-based policy making and community empowerment.

The CDS Hub for Equity Impact encompasses the research, curricular, and co-curricular activities pursued by CDS faculty members and their collaborators, as well as those pursued within co-laboratories set up in partnership with other academic units and research centers at BU, most notably the Justice Media co-Lab (a partnership with the College of Communication) and the nascent Racial Data Lab  (a partnership with the Center for Antiracist Research).