Inaugural lecture by Prof. Deborah Sulem - Data Science: the good, the bad and the wild
Institutional Communication Service
Date: 2 March 2026 / 18:00 - 19:00
Auditorium, Wes Campus, USI
Monday, March 2, 2026
6:00 PM
Auditorium, West Campus Lugano
Prof. Deborah Sulem, new Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Informatics, will give her inaugural lecture "Data Science: the good, the bad and the wild." She will offer a critical and articulate look at the evolution of data science, its growing impact on everyday life, and the responsibilities that come with it.
Prof. Deborah Sulem will begin by reflecting on the remarkable pace of development in data science and predictive algorithms. She will discuss how these tools are transforming not only the work of data scientists but also a variety of other scientific fields and aspects of everyday life. In a landscape characterised by continuous innovation, data science is an inherently interdisciplinary field that integrates mathematics, computer science, and engineering. It is continually evolving as new models and concepts emerge.
During the lecture, some fundamental concepts and models will be discussed to understand the versatility of machine learning algorithms, showing how they can be applied to very different contexts. Alongside the opportunities, however, ample space will also be given to critical issues.
A key focus of the lecture will be the real-world applications of predictive algorithms, where notable methodological weaknesses often arise, particularly when models are applied to individual data. Learning from data that contains social biases can cause algorithms to reproduce — and sometimes even amplify — these distortions in their predictions.
Understanding how these biases originate, how they manifest, and, above all, how they can be prevented is one of Prof. Sulem's main areas of research and will be a main topic of the lecture. It is therefore an invitation to view data science not only as a powerful driver of innovation, but also as a field that requires awareness, methodological rigour, and ethical responsibility.
The lecture will be held in English and is open to the entire university community and the interested public. An aperitif will follow. Registration required: