Stephen Hawking Opens Institute to Decipher, Leverage Big Data Possibilities

Professor Stephen Hawking believes big data has the potential to advance science, healthcare, and education, and he has launched a new institute to prove just that.

Hawking’s has launched the Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information at the University of Cambridge.

“In a dazzlingly complex world, you have to be able to discern the meaning in the mess,” he said at a launch event this week. “The power of information only comes from the sophistication of the insights which that information lends itself to. The purpose of using information, in this context, is to drive new insight.”

The Institute will accommodate research activity on fundamental mathematical problems and methodology for understanding and analyzing data.

Hawking hopes the new initiative—a collaboration between the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics—will “push the boundaries of mathematics.”

The Institute says it is already working on projects that span a range of applications across several sectors and disciplines.