About DIG

What Motivates Us

We are passionate about helping people make sense of data. Data permeates many aspects of our lives today. Data scientists analyze data to provide information for data-driven decisions or scientific discoveries. Informed citizens use data to keep their representatives accountable. Machine learning engineers use data to train models that help us take better pictures, suggest people we may want to follow, or decides whether we get a loan. In our group, we want to use our expertise in system building and design to help everyone uncover insights in data and understand how data is used to make decisions that affect their lives.

History

Adam Perer and Dominik Moritz started our group in 2019 at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

Logo

The DIG logo is the CMU macot Scotty digging. Find out more in our launch post.

Our Values

People matter. Teams are more successful when everybody is happy. We are all human and strive for an inclusive environment. We care about work-life balance. We celebrate successes and learn from failures.

Simple but not easy. We strive to find simple solutions and principles to solve complex problem. Finding simple solutions doesn’t mean it’s easy but it means that the end result is usable and clearly communicated.

Execution matters. There are a lot of good ideas but a good idea only becomes a successful idea when it is well-executed and clearly communicated. We care about meaningful impact.

Pragmatism over dogmatism. Break rules when you have to and adjust your principles when it doesn’t match reality.

We don’t live in a bubble. Scientists can’t be in a bubble. We have to care about the societal, ecological, and economical impact of our work. We have to help fight discrimination, climate change, and poverty.

Process integrity over outcome achievement. We care about doing things right and upholding our values. Success comes in many different forms and is influenced by factors we do not control.