duke social science research institute (ssri): an overview

© 2015 Duke CGGC

DUKE SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SSRI):

AN OVERVIEW

Astana, KazakhstanNovember 18, 2015

Mike HensenDuke University,

Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness

© 2015 Duke CGGC

AGENDA

1. Institutional History of Duke SSRI

2. Evolution of Duke SSRI

“Pre-2013 Duke SSRI”

“2015 Duke SSRI”

3. Fitting the “New” SSRI into the Interdisciplinary

Landscape at Duke

2

© 2015 Duke CGGC

INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF DUKE SSRI

© 2015 Duke CGGC

DUKE SSRI

• Duke University 2001 strategic plan envisaged catalytic presence in interdisciplinary social science research and education

• SSRI opened its doors in 2003 as one of Duke’s signature institutes and Centers

• For the first 10 years, SSRI served as an incubator or umbrella institute for disparate research centers directed by individual Duke professors

• Provided administrative support to the centers in the areas of finance, information technology, human resources, grant administration and communications

4

© 2015 Duke CGGC

Economies of Scale• Shared Resources

Connecting Communities

WHY DOES SSRI EXIST?

5

© 2015 Duke CGGC

EVOLUTION OF DUKE SSRI

© 2015 Duke CGGC

“Pre-2013 SSRI”

7

© 2015 Duke CGGC

Year 1: Construction &Planning for

Gross Hall Move

Year 2: Move to Gross Hall and Pilot

Infrastructure in Gross Hall

Year 3: Introduction of fully operational

“New SSRI” to Campus and

incubate communities

3 YEAR TRANSITION TO “NEW” SSRI

8

© 2015 Duke CGGC

9

© 2015 Duke CGGC

FITTING THE “NEW” SSRI INTO THE

INTERDISCIPLINARY LANDSCAPE AT DUKE

© 2015 Duke CGGC

SSRI RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE

11

© 2015 Duke CGGC

12

© 2015 Duke CGGC

EMERGING BIG “TREES” OF CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

13

EHDi

EducationalPrograms

Research Working Groups

Bass Projects

UniversityPartnership

IncubatingResearchProjects

DataRepositories

CommunityProjects

PilotProjects

© 2015 Duke CGGC

DUKE SSRI

• So, how does this “interdisciplinary”

idea really function?

14

© 2015 Duke CGGC

Successful division of labor

…

Ph

ysic

s

…

Ph

iloso

ph

y

Ch

emis

try

Bio

logy

Mat

hem

atic

s

Stat

isti

cs

Eco

no

mic

s

Polit

ical

Sci

ence

Soci

olo

gy

Psy

cho

logy

An

thro

po

logy

His

tory

Cla

ssic

s

Lite

ratu

re

The

Art

s

This evolution of disciplinary specialization has led to the most extraordinary advance in human knowledge and well-being.

So why isn’t it good enough?

CLAIM: The most pressing challenges we face in the 21st Centurycannot be addressed from within separated disciplines.

© 2015 Duke CGGC

Example of 21st Century Challenge

…

Ph

ysic

s

…

Ph

iloso

ph

y

Ch

emis

try

Bio

logy

Mat

hem

atic

s

Stat

isti

cs

Eco

no

mic

s

Polit

ical

Sci

ence

Soci

olo

gy

Psy

cho

logy

An

thro

po

logy

His

tory

Cla

ssic

s

Lite

ratu

re

The

Art

s

Health care

Clinical research of course continues to be

vital …

… as does the search for more

sophisticated technological

advances.

But we now understand that behavioral choices are as important to medical outcomes as clinical treatments.

Which disciplines matter?

© 2015 Duke CGGC


……

Ph

iloso

ph

y

Mat

hem

atic

s

Stat

isti

cs

Eco

no

mic

s

Polit

ical

Sci

ence

His

tory

Cla

ssic

s

Lite

ratu

re

The

Art

s

Health care

But we now understand that behavioral choices are as important to medical outcomes as clinical treatments.

The historical context gives rise to the

political constraints reformers face …

… and provides the backdrop for deep

ethical inquiry as health care changes.

© 2015 Duke CGGC


……

Mat

hem

atic

s

Stat

isti

cs

Eco

no

mic

s

Lite

ratu

re

The

Art

s

Health care

The historical context gives rise to the

political constraints reformers face …

… and provides the backdrop for deep

ethical inquiry as health care changes.

Big data has emerged as a means for linking clinical and behavioral choices as medicine becomes more targeted …

© 2015 Duke CGGC


……

Lite

ratu

re

The

Art

s

Health care

Big data has emerged as a means for linking clinical and behavioral choices as medicine becomes more targeted …

… and the arts provide an

enduring forum to explore,

communicate and humanize the issues we

confront.

© 2015 Duke CGGC


Health care

… and the arts provide an

enduring forum to explore,

communicate and humanize the issues we

confront.

Each discipline can individually make its mark on the health care challenges of our time,

but collaborations across disciplines can create more than the sum of its parts.

© 2015 Duke CGGC

• Among the new ‘big trees’ of connected communities in the interdisciplinary landscape at Duke is one called ‘Education and Human Development, (EHD)

• Themes within EHDEmerging bottom up

EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

21

© 2015 Duke CGGC

22

The North Carolina in the Global Economy project has existed at

Duke CGGC for many years and is now gaining new momentum as a project within this Education and

Human Development focus.

© 2015 Duke CGGC

An early motivating example …

Guillermo Sapiro is a newly recruited faculty

member in Electrical Engineering. His

expertise is machine learning, particularly in

relation to video.

Helen Egger is head of the Division of Duke Child & Adolescent

Psychiatry.

They both have an interest in the autism spectrum in children but have very different, non-overlapping expertise.

© 2015 Duke CGGC

Different Expertise, Shared interests

Guillermo knows how to use data on what

humans detect to teach machines how to

detect the same thing –perhaps better than

the humans.

Helen has hundreds of hours of video of young

children being screened for autism –which is very hard to

detect in young children -- by skilled

professionals.

They live their professional lives in very different parts of the university, each running their own separate labs.

© 2015 Duke CGGC

Introductions Are made … and in idea is Born

100’s of videos …

… and machines that learn from video to do it even better than humans

What if we could design a cheap camera that could track eyes and head movements and

identify early indicators of autism?

© 2015 Duke CGGC

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Begins …

Within weeks of meeting, they integrated their labs and the work began.

They brought undergraduates with different technical skills into their teams.

© 2015 Duke CGGC

“2015 DUKE SSRI”

• At a university such as Duke, where the medical,

engineering and social science communities occupy

significant shared intellectual and physical space,

there is huge potential in exploring the potential

collaborations between these communities.

• SSRI is in a unique position to catalyze that

collaboration.

29