First-Year Students' First Assignment: Come to Grips with Big Data

Every year, first-year students are asked to arrive on campus prepared to discuss the book chosen for its special relevance. Given the number of times that misuse of personal information has appeared in news headlines recently, the choice of this year’s Adelphi Community Reads book seemed like a natural.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O’Neil, Ph.D. (Crown, 2016), addresses a topic that directly affects each student’s life: how personal data that’s collected is used to determine everything from the ability to get a loan, to how much we pay for health insurance, to college rankings.

See more about the book and the Community Reads program.