Lehigh’s Institute for Data, Intelligent Systems, and Computation (I-DISC) is becoming the Institute for Data, AI, Society, and Computation, retaining the familiar I-DISC acronym while updating its name to better reflect the rapidly evolving research landscape.
The change brings AI explicitly to the forefront of the institute’s identity. Although artificial intelligence has always been encompassed within the term “intelligent systems,” AI has become the dominant language across academia, industry, government, and funding agencies. Making AI visible in the institute’s name more clearly communicates an area already central to the research activities of many I-DISC faculty and research groups.
At the same time, the addition of Society reflects the growing recognition that advances in AI and data science cannot be considered solely as technical developments. Questions involving human interaction with AI, trust, responsible and explainable AI, health, business, public policy, and the broader societal consequences of emerging technologies increasingly require collaboration across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
The new name reflects both continuity and evolution. Data remains foundational to modern AI and scientific discovery, while Computation continues to represent I-DISC strengths in algorithms, optimization, scalable systems, software, and computational infrastructure. Together, Data, AI, Society, and Computation capture the breadth of research the institute seeks to foster.
Importantly, the rebranding does not represent a change in I-DISC’s fundamental mission. The institute will continue to serve as a collaborative, interdisciplinary hub connecting researchers across Lehigh. I-DISC supports faculty through research groups, seed funding, student research support, proposal development, research matchmaking, workshops and faculty forums, and connections with industry and government partners.
The updated identity also reflects a changing external environment, as funding agencies increasingly identify AI as a priority across disciplines. The new name positions I-DISC more clearly within this landscape while preserving the institute’s established identity and strengths.
Ultimately, the rebranding is intended to make more visible what I-DISC is already working to accomplish: bringing together researchers across disciplines to advance data, AI, computation, and their connections to society, and helping those collaborations grow into meaningful research initiatives.