Academics are desperate to claim data science as their own territory, but is it a fight worth having? This week Niall Kitson visits NCI to get two sides of the argument.

In one corner we have Professor Michael J. Franklin, Liew Family Chair of Computer Science and Chairman of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago arguing in favour of data science as a new field.

In the other, Prof Jeffrey D. Ullman, Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Engineering (Emeritus) in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University and CEO of Gradiance Corporation says there's not much new to get excited about.

Draw your own conclusions.