Data Science

Division of Science and Mathematics

Data science is an emerging, interdisciplinary field that sits at the intersection of computer science, statistics, and mathematics. Data science is the process of transforming raw, unorganized data into useful information and then presenting that information in a clear, concise way. In the past, students who were interested in data science pursued studies in both mathematics and computer science. However, while data science requires fluency in those fields, it has a unique perspective. At its core, data science is about critical thinking: utilizing information in order to understand the world more deeply.

Students who pursue a degree in data science take foundational courses in mathematics and programming, but also learn to how to work with clients to model and analyze data with methods that are appropriate for a particular analytic problem. Students gain experience working with data sets from many different fields, including the humanities and the social, physical, and biological sciences. In each data science course, students also gain experience communicating their ideas visually, orally, and in writing with the help of data visualization tools, in a way that non-experts can understand. Data scientists are in high demand, and our students will find themselves well-prepared for a wide range of pursuits after college.

Faculty

Jeffrey Heath (chair), Thomas Allen, Michael Bradshaw, Michael Lamar, David Toth, Ruohao Zhang

Student Representative

Lam Le, Sharon Mega

Data Science Courses

Course Descriptions