極客之選:紐約還是西雅圖?

THE East Coast/West Coast rivalry is not just over hip-hop, food and fashion anymore. Now it has made its way to universities preparing the next generation of technologists: data scientists who can make sense (and use) of the explosion of information that is now produced by nearly every industry. New York and Seattle are already sparring over which will be the next hotbed, beyond Silicon Valley, for educating these analysts of the future.

東海岸和西海岸的競爭已經不再侷限於嘻哈音樂、美食和時尚。現在，這種競爭又延伸到了準備培養下一代技術專家的大學：技術專家專指了解（並可利用）信息爆炸的數據科學家，而現在幾乎每個行業都在出現信息爆炸。紐約和西雅圖已經展開了培養這些未來分析師的爭奪戰，它們都希望自己能夠成爲繼硅谷之後的第二個孵化地。

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's Applied Sciences NYC initiative, whose centerpiece will be the new applied science campus on Roosevelt Island, is also providing money and motivation to make sure New York is mentioned in the same sentence as Big Data. The city is contributing $15 million in assistance to Columbia's new Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, which will begin offering a certificate program in the fall and ultimately hire 75 more professors.

紐約市長邁克爾·R·布隆伯格(Michael R. Bloomberg)發起的“紐約市應用科學”(Applied Sciences NYC)計劃——其核心是在羅斯福島打造一個新的應用科學校園——也在提供資金和驅動力，確保紐約能夠與大數據(Big Data)聯繫在一起。紐約市爲哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)新成立的數據科學和工程學院(Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering)提供了1500萬美元的資助；該學院將會從今年秋季開始提供證書課程，並最終招聘75名教授。

New York University has two new fronts: the Center for Data Science as well as the Center for Urban Science and Progress, both introducing master's programs in the fall. With $15 million in city aid, CUSP will apply Big Data to practical urban issues like how to make skyscrapers more energy efficient or the subways more reliable. Until 2017, when a 150,000-square-foot campus and start-up incubator are carved out of the old transit headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn, students will study at the nearby Polytechnic Institute of N.Y.U. Microsoft and Lutron Electronics will also collaborate with the Brooklyn center on research.

紐約大學(New York University)擁有兩條新的陣線：數據科學中心(Center for Data Science)和城市科學與進步中心(Center for Urban Science and Progress)，兩個中心都將於今年秋季引入碩士課程。基於紐約市撥發的1500萬美元資助款，城市科學與進步中心將會把大數據應用到實際的城市議題中，比如說，如何使摩天大廈更節能或讓地鐵更可靠。設在布魯克林商業區老交通總部、佔地15萬平方英尺的校園和創業孵化基地將於2017年竣工，而此前學生則在附近的紐約大學理工學院(Polytechnic Institute of NYU)學習。微軟(Microsoft)和路創電子(Lutron Electronics)也將會與設在布魯克林的這個中心進行研究合作。

"New York City is on the verge of becoming a data science mecca," said Yann LeCun, director of the Center for Data Science. "It's partly because of those initiatives from Mayor Bloomberg and partly because of an extremely vibrant local industry of large and small start-up companies that are all highly involved in data analysis." And, he added, "It's much more fun to be in New York, in terms of life besides work. You don't even have to own a car."

“紐約市即將成爲一個數據科學聖地，”數據科學中心的主任揚恩·萊昆(Yann LeCun)說，“這一方面是因爲這些動議是布隆伯格市長髮起的，另一方面也是因爲這裏有着大大小小的、與數據分析高度相關的創業公司，從而形成了一個充滿活力的地方產業。”此外，他還補充說：“除工作之外，就生活而言，紐約也是一個非常好玩的城市。你甚至都沒有必要買車。”

Meanwhile, in Seattle, with its green hiking trails, coffee culture and tech industry, the University of Washington is making its own pitch. The university has opened the eScience Institute for studying data across disciplines and has a new Ph.D. program in Big Data. It also has many rich and powerful neighbors in tech to finance its data initiatives and lure big-name faculty members.

與此同時，在以徒步綠廊、咖啡文化和技術產業聞名的西雅圖，華盛頓大學(University of Washington)也在進行宣傳。該校已經成立了旨在進行跨學科數據研究的e-科學學院(eScience Institute)，並開設了新的大數據博士學位課程。此外，它還有很多技術領域的“鄰居”，這些有錢有勢的公司對它的數據動議給予了財務支持；同時，它也吸引了很多知名的教職人員。

Since 2000, Microsoft has donated $22 million to the computer science program; Google gives several million dollars a year. And Amazon has endowed two professorships with $2 million; Jeff Bezos, its founder and chief executive, personally recruited Carlos Guestrin for computer science and Emily B. Fox for statistics.

自2000年以來，微軟(Microsoft)已經爲華盛頓大學的計算機科學項目捐贈了2200萬美元；谷歌(Google)每年也會捐贈數百萬美元。而亞馬遜(Amazon)則捐贈200萬美元，冠名兩個講席教授職位；亞馬遜的創始人兼首席執行官傑夫·貝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)親自招募了負責計算機科學的卡洛斯·格斯特林(Carlos Guestrin)和負責統計學的艾米莉·B·福克斯(Emily B. Fox)。

The companies offer more than just money, said Mr. Guestrin, one of the world's top machine-learning researchers, previously of Carnegie Mellon. "Money helps because students have to eat their ramen, but it's not just that," he said. Companies also lend students their real-world data to crunch. "Companies often see big challenges we might not see at that scale or have access to at the university," he said, "and those connections can be transformative."

世界頂級的機器學習研究專家、之前就職於卡耐基梅隆大學(Carnegie Mellon University)的格斯特林先生表示，公司所提供的並不僅僅是金錢。他補充道：“金錢是有幫助的，因爲學生也要吃飯，但它的作用並不僅限於此。”公司也爲學生提供了可供其研究的真實世界的數據。“公司經常會看到我們在大學裏可能看不到的或接觸不到的巨大挑戰，”他說，“而這些聯繫是具有變革意義的。”

Like New York, Seattle has draws outside the classroom. "It attracts certain geeks like me, nature-loving and into music, food and biking," Mr. Guestrin said. But the biggest attraction, he said: "The data is on the West Coast."

同紐約一樣，課堂之外的西雅圖也有着其自身的吸引力。“它吸引了像我這樣，喜歡大自然、音樂、美食和騎單車的極客，”格斯特林先說。但談到最大的吸引力時，他說：“數據在西海岸。”