Public Impact Analytics Science Lab (PIAS-Lab) at Harvard
The Public Impact Analytics Science Lab (PIAS-Lab) at Harvard, founded and directed by Soroush Saghafian, is devoted to advancing and applying the science of analytics to solving societal problems that can have a public impact. The lab's mission is to improve societal outcomes by developing, integrating, and using appropriate analytical tools in Operations Research, Machine Learning and Big Data, Decision Making, Statistics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and related fields.
The Lab is currently mainly focusing on the healthcare sector and is collaborating with the Statistical Reinforcement Learning Lab at Harvard, the Harvard Center for Health Decision Science, the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and various other organizations, including the Mayo Clinic, the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Dana Faber Cancer Institute, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The PIAS-LAB is hosted by the Harvard Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG). The mission of M-RCBG is to advance the state of knowledge and policy analysis concerning some of society’s most challenging problems at the interface of the public and private sectors.
The PIAS-LAB has access to high computational power and extremely secure data storage clusters. Specifically, the lab uses the FAS Secure Environment (FASSE), a highly secure multi-tenant cluster environment at Harvard that allows access to a secure enclave for the analysis of sensitive datasets. FASSE currently has 24 nodes and 48 cores per node.
NEW Open Postdoctoral Fellow Position Announcement (2024): PIAS-Lab is accepting new applications for a new Postdoctoral Fellow position. More information can be found here.
New book [book description] on Amazon [Book Endorsements]
Media Coverage Examples
AWS-HDSI Impact Computing Project at HDSI/Interview with Soroush Saghafian: https://vimeo.com/1084840564
PIAS-Lab Members
A full list of Ph.D. students and Postdoctoral Fellows engaged in the lab activities can be found here: Ph.D. students and Postdoctoral Fellows.
More Information about PIAS-Lab Activities
Interview with Dr. Soroush Saghafian by Fast Company: Using AI for Public Impact: Insights from Dr. Soroush Saghafian [five takeaways from an AI pioneer about its potential impact in healthcare]
- Lab Coverage by The Harvard Crimson: Harvard Kennedy School Public Impact Analytics Science Lab Receives $3 Million From DOD
- Q&A with Dr. Soroush Saghafian: Big Data and Machine Learning can Usher in a New Era of Policymaking
- Lab in the Boston Globe: Patients and staff criticize state’s plan to close beloved children’s hospital in Canton
- Interview with Harvard Gazette on the 70-year study of mortality gaps between Black and white Americans:
- Soroush Saghafian interview with NPR/WBUR on the 70-year study of mortality gaps: Soroush Saghafian.mp3 [NPR/WBUR]
- Interview with the Korean Newspaper, Chosun Ilbo: Medical disparities by region and income can be reduced through AI:
- Watch a 5-minute video describing an example of PIAS-Lab activities (in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic):
PIAS-Lab Contact Information
Lab's Contact Person:
Catherine Kearns
Phone: 617-384-7340
Email: catherine_kearns@hks.harvard.edu
Lab's Mailing Address:
Harvard Kennedy School
Mailbox 37
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Lab's Twitter Account:
@PIASLab
Lab's LinkedIn Account:
Public Impact Analytics Science Lab (PIAS-Lab) at Harvard