Insight-Driven Problem Solving: Analytics Science to Improve the World

In this seminar, Prof. Soroush Saghafian discussed improving public policies, creating the next generation of AI systems, reducing crime, making hospitals more efficient, addressing climate change, controlling pandemics, and reducing disruption in supply chains are all problems where big picture ideas from analytics science have had large-scale impact. What are those ideas? Who came up with them? Will insights from analytics science help solve even more daunting societal challenges? Learn about the evolution of analytics science and how it brought together ideas and tools from many different fields – AI, machine learning, data science, OR, optimization, statistics, economics, and more – to make the world a better place. Using these ideas and tools, big picture insights emerge from simplified settings that get at the essence of a problem, leading to superior approaches to complex societal issues. This seminar was given on Monday, November 3, 2025 and was moderated by Professor Richard Zeckhauser, Harvard Kennedy School. Click for more information about Professor Saghafian's new book: https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/computer-science/knowledge-management-databases-and-data-mining/insight-driven-problem-solving-analytics-science-improve-world