Nowak, Noyce receive new data science grants

College of Engineering faculty members Robert Nowak and David Noyce are leading projects that have received “mini grants” through the American Family Funding Initiative, a new research competition for data science projects across the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The initiative is through the American Family Insurance Data Science Institute, which opened in July 2019 to support data science research at UW-Madison.

Nowak, who holds the Keith and Jane Morgan Nosbusch Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering and is a Discovery Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, is principal investigator for a project aiming to optimize question-and-answer online software systems.

Noyce, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and the college’s executive associate dean, is principal investigator for an effort to use data science advances to create tools that will improve traffic safety.

In addition, Molly Carnes, a professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health, affiliate faculty member in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and co-director of the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute, is a collaborator on a project applying data to support student entrepreneurs.

In total, nine projects earned grants of $75,000 to $150,000 per year as part of the initiative’s first round of awards.