Chaminade University is partnering with the United Nations to create a United Nations Sustainability Center to expand its data science program and work toward meeting the U.N.’s 17 sustainable development goals.

Funded by a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Chaminade program will work in collaboration with the University of Hawaii’s Data Science Institute, the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Advanced Computing Center to implement education research and training programs.

“One of the reasons we are so proud to have the United Nations Sustainability Center at Chaminade is because there’s only 22 of them in the world,” said Helen Turner, Chaminade’s research director of the United Nations Sustainability Center. “It links us, our faculty, our students and our partners to a truly global network of people who are focused on these same sustainable development goals.”

The program website will launch Sept. 1, a little more than two weeks after President Joe Biden enacted a landmark climate, health care and corporate tax law.

The Inflation Reduction Act aims to address issues similar to those that the Sustainability Center will focus on, such as sustainable development, poverty, climate change and health equity.

The program plans to convene representatives from business, nonprofit and social service sectors to tailor its education opportunities to workforce needs. Attendees also will also discuss how data analytics can be used to support sustainable development goals, Turner said.

Chaminade also will begin expanding its data science program to include data science certifications, summer immersion programs and research internships, Turner said. College students throughout the Pacific and people who are already in the data science workforce will have access to the various programs. By increasing the existing program’s accessibility, she also sees it as a pathway for more Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders to join the field.

Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders from Palau, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Samoa and other places already attend Chaminade both virtually and in person, according to Turner. The program will allow those communities to collaborate with other institutions to better address the unique challenges their hometowns are facing.

The program also will seek to support social sector organizations and nonprofits that can’t afford to employ data scientists because they are in high demand.

Rylan Chong, Chaminade’s program director for the data science program, said the university’s current program places nearly 100% of its students in internships, graduate school or directly into the workforce after graduation.

“We can’t produce data science graduates fast enough to meet the needs of our employers locally,” Turner said.

She predicts an approaching era where data scientists will be needed in every organization across the country. Turner hopes the new U.N. Sustainability Center will seek ways to support the missions of organizations both large and small.

“It’s really about using data science to advance the sustainable development goals, particularly in Hawaii and the Pacific region,” she said.

Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.