Is Data Science a new approach to solving problems, one that applies across disciplines as various as physics, sociology and linguistics? Or are machine learning, deep convoluted neural nets, and other exciting phrases just statistics on steroids? As a launching event of the Data Science Across Disciplines Research Group at the University of Johannesburg, this conference brings together reflections on both the actual and potential impact of data science across disciplines and sectors. Keynote speakers include Yoshua Bengio (Department of Computer Science and Operational Research, Université de Montréal, IVADO, CIFAR, Scientific Director – Mila), Geralyn Miller (Sr. Director of the AI for Good Research Lab at Microsoft), and Mark Parsons (Editor in Chief, Data Science Journal, University of Alabama).