Carnegie Mellon University Launches the Center for Collaboration Science

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) announces the launch of the Center for Collaboration Science (CoLab), a new interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to catalyzing and supporting collaborative science research and education across departments and disciplines at CMU.

Housed jointly at CMU’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the Tepper School of Business, CoLab will serve as the primary hub on campus for new ideas and insights on collaboration and teamwork. It will foster the discovery of innovative solutions that impact research, practice, and policy.

CoLab’s interdisciplinary network of affiliates will span campus, drawing from business, psychology, economics, computer science, and engineering, among other disciplines. CoLab will support research related to fundamental challenges in today’s collaboration landscape: teams and technology, complex team design, collective intelligence, conflict and diversity, as well as team learning and innovation.

"Far too often, interdisciplinary research emerges by chance, and siloed activities prevent      great ideas from emerging or reaching their full potential," said Anna Mayo, CoLab Director and Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Heinz College. “We created CoLab to change that through the development of an institutional hub that actively connects researchers from across disciplines.”

In addition to Mayo’s leadership, CoLab’s steering committee includes Tepper School of Business Professors of Organizational Behavior and Theory, Laurie Weingart and Anita Williams Woolley, as well as Lindsay Larson, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Heinz College. CoLab currently has more than 30 affiliated faculty and post-doctoral fellows, and will expand to include additional faculty, post-doctoral fellows and students.

“New technologies, greater professional specialization, and industry volatility have made collaboration more important and challenging than ever,” said Woolley. “We know that no one academic discipline holds the key to unlocking collaboration; we need insights born from interdisciplinary research that CoLab will foster.”

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About Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy is home to two internationally recognized schools: the School of Information Systems and Management and the School of Public Policy and Management. Heinz College leads at the intersection of people, policy, and technology, with expertise in analytics, artificial intelligence, arts & entertainment, cybersecurity, health care, and public policy. The college offers top-ranked undergraduate, graduate, and executive education certificates in these areas. Our programs are ranked #1 in Information Systems, #1 in Information and Technology Management, #8 in Public Policy Analysis, and #1 in Cybersecurity by U.S. News & World Report. For more information, visit www.heinz.cmu.edu.