“Domino for Good” Catalyzes the Impact of Data Science Beyond the Enterprise

SAN FRANCISCO–Domino Data Lab, the makers of an innovative, collaborative data science platform, today announced the launch of Domino for Good, a social impact initiative that provides nonprofits, academia and students with access to its technology, mentorship and data scientists. The program’s commitment to advancing society through data science collaboration aims to have a wide-reaching, profound impact on global issues such as poverty, disease and public safety.

The launch materializes Domino’s long time commitment to social impact. “We founded the company with the belief that being data-driven will fundamentally change the way all organizations operate,” said Domino Co-founder and CTO Chris Yang. “Our mission is to help all organizations that are using data science, such as non-profits, and educational programs, we well as our commercial and government customers.”

“Volunteer data scientists are an important tool for nonprofits who make use of analytics and data science–but they often work in short or temporary stints, and are distributed across physical locations spanning different time zones. This makes reproducibility and collaboration essential to success”

Early adopters of Domino, including the Audubon Society, MDRC, and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, have used Domino for research core to their missions, from studying how climate change will impact wildlife to how genetic sequences influence cancer.

“As interest increased and we began to see how nonprofits and groups could use our platform to effect change, we hired Dr. Lisa Green who has dedicated her career to figuring out how to leverage data science for social good,” said Nick Elprin, CEO of Domino. “She brings with her a wealth of experience and a rich network. We’re excited to see how she can build on our vision.”

Dr. Green, who joined Domino to lead the initiative, has more than 10 years of experience advocating for open innovation, digital rights and data science for social good. Most notably, Dr. Green initiated a program to advance open science at bioinformatics leader Illumina. She also established an open, international data policy at nonprofit Creative Commons and then went on to build a nonprofit dedicated to open data called Common Crawl. Dr. Green received her PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The success of Common Crawl validated my belief in the impact of open data, empowering valuable research by academia, large businesses, startups and individuals,” said Dr. Green. “Domino for Good, to me, represents an equally significant opportunity to help organizations and individuals with limited resources make the biggest impact possible using data science.”

The Domino platform helps individuals and organizations develop and deploy predictive models more rapidly, to advance science faster and to benefit society as a whole. This is especially critical for nonprofits that generally suffer from “hand-off” issues when volunteers work on projects part-time and the work is not transferred to the next person.

“Volunteer data scientists are an important tool for nonprofits who make use of analytics and data science–but they often work in short or temporary stints, and are distributed across physical locations spanning different time zones. This makes reproducibility and collaboration essential to success,” said Peter Bull, co-founder of DrivenData. “Domino for Good ensures that nonprofits get that reproducibility and consistency that enables distributed projects to thrive.”

Domino for Good has partnerships with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Data for Democracy, DrivenData, Ice911, MDRC, Thorn, University of Virginia and others.

Program participant Dr. Leslie Field, founder and CEO, Ice911, shared how her organization is using Domino for Good: “We rely heavily on the use of data science to achieve our mission of slowing climate change. Domino for Good helps us make the most of limited resources by giving us access to the Domino platform, which would have otherwise been beyond our means. We are working faster, smarter and more collaboratively today than ever before.”

About Domino Data Lab

Domino is the world’s most advanced data science platform, powering organizations that are using predictive models to drive their business. Companies including Allstate, Coatue, Mashable, Bayer and startups alike use Domino to accelerate breakthrough research, increase collaboration and productivity of data scientists, and more rapidly deliver models to drive business impact. Founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, Domino is backed by Sequoia Capital, Bloomberg Beta, and Zetta Venture Partners. To learn more, visit dominodatalab.com.