It started over soup. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was a faculty lunchroom at the Statler Hotel on Cornell's campus. Economists sat at one table, computer scientists at another. It happened slowly, but over time, the scholars overheard each other's conversations, recognized common interests and started moving chairs closer.
"I remember conversations about research, how we were looking at similar questions but looking at them differently," said economist David Easley, the Henry Scarborough Professor of Social Science in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). "We realized we each had something to contribute that the other side hadn't thought of, that could make things better."
Within a few years, Cornell was leading an intellectual movement that has become influential inside and outside academic circles, impacting tech companies, U.S. government policy and the stock market and bearing fruit in key moments.
In a world that's growing more connected every day, economists and computer scientists say they need to work together. Cornell researchers have thought this way for years, and the rest of the world is catching on.
Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.
