Tag Archives: university

NYU Launches New Center For Data Science

New York University has just launched some Data Science programs via the new Center for Data Science.

… to establish the country’s leading data science training and research facilities at NYU.

Part of the announcement is an M.S. in Data Science. Applications for the initial class, starting Fall 2013, are now being accepted. The Center for Data Science also plans to offer Ph.D. degrees via the Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science departments. I am not sure if an official Ph.D. degree in Data Science is being planned.

This is great news!

Big Data Education

I recently read, Big Data Education: 3 Steps Universities must take

Here are the 3 steps listed:

  1. Data Science cannot be an undergraduate degree
  2. A graduate degree should contain math, stats and computer science
  3. Research

Step 2 seems obvious. Math, stats, and computer science are some of the key areas for data science. I would add communication and presentation skills to the list because people with just math, stats, and CS skills are not known to be naturally good communicators. I agree with step 3. More research needs to be done, but most of the research will need to be interdisiplinary. Universities need to put more effort into interdisiplinary research.

Step 1 confused me a bit. The argument was data science has too many necessary skills and an applied focus area. Of course a person cannot learn everything about data science in an undergraduate degree. Earning a computer science degree does not mean you will know everything about computer science. It just means you know the fundamentals about algorithms, architecture, and operating systems. You know enough about computer science to understand the field and learn more as you go. I think 4 years should be enough time to do the same for data science.

What are your thoughts?

How To Learn Data Science?

Based upon the popularity of a previous post about a certificate program from the University of Washington, it appears that many people are interested in learning the skills necessary to become a data scientist. Thus, I decided to compile a list of some of the possible learning strategies.

Traditional College Education

The most obvious path would be to study at a traditional college or university. Colleges and universities are starting to notice the demand for data science skills, and many colleges are currently offering programs to prepare someone as a data scientist. This path is safe and predictable. Do the homework, complete the courses, and get the degree or certificate. Most people are familiar with the process, and it offers few surprises. The problems here are the costs, lack of flexibility, and time involved.

Corporate Training

Companies are now starting to offer training programs for data science. EMC is leading the way in this category with their data science training program. Cloudera also offers lots of training related to hadoop and big data. Wolfram offers data science training with Mathematica. One of the problems with this category is the cost. Another problem is the companies have the tendency to teach and promote their own products. This may leave the student with numerous gaps in the full data science spectrum.

Your Thoughts?

What are you thoughts about the above approaches? What are the positives and negatives? Also, later this week I will be posting some less-traditional approaches to learning data science.

New Data Science Certificate Program

Starting in the fall of 2012, the University of Washington will be offering a certificate in Data Science. The program has two sections: one located in Seattle and the other online. The certificate consists of three separate courses each lasting approximately 3 months. Thus the program can be completed in 9 months, and the cost is around $3000.

There are some information sessions later this summer. If you are in Seattle, there is an information session on July 19. If you are interested in the online program, a webinar is scheduled for August 29.

The program content looks quite good. Some of the topics to be covered include: hadoop, NoSQL, machine learning, statistics, graph algorithms, and more. If you are looking to become a data scientist, this just might be the program for you.

I also added this certificate program to my list of College’s offering data science degrees.

Do You Need College To Be A Data Scientist?

With some of the top tech entrepreneurs in the U.S. either dropping out of college or not attending, there is some debate about whether college is the right choice or not. This post will focus on college for data science. However, for college in general, if you know what you want to study, then college or graduate school is a great option. If you are going to college because you do not know what else to do, I would say college is too expensive for that.

College?

Most would agree that an undergraduate degree in some highly analytical field (math, CS, economics, physics) is definitely beneficial. Plus college has a strict set of guidelines and a specific order for the learning. A formal degree program often provides the necessary motivation for a person to continue learning. The U.S. college education system is not perfect, but if it keeps a person from quitting, it will help to reach the goal of becoming a data scientist.

All this leads to a second point. Only a few colleges offer undergraduate degree programs for data science. Thus, graduate school or more learning will still be required. College should provide the necessary prerequisites and many employers will pay for the continued learning.

No College?

A highly motivated person could probably learn most if not all the data science skills on the internet for free or very low cost. The key is being a highly motivated person. That person must have the drive to not quit when the learning becomes difficult. Also, there are no classmates or professors to help with difficult concepts. Sure, the internet can help there, but it requires a bit more work to find the help. Plus, knowing what topics to learn and in what order can be challenging. Already, this blog has much helpful content, but it is not organized based upon a sequence of learning. Not attending college presents some obstacles that only the most highly motivated students will overcome. As more and more learning resources appear online, the no college option may become more popular.

What is the Answer?

Strictly speaking, I would say the answer is NO. However, many people will not succeed without the rigor of school, and some companies will not hire a person without a degree. So, college is not 100% essential to being a data scientist, but for many it is probably the best option.

Colleges with Data Science Degrees

Colleges and Universities are slowly starting to notice the demand for employees with data science skills. Most of the programs are not named data science, but they all focus on producing data people. Below are a couple of the programs I have noticed so far.

Do you know of any other programs?

School Program On-Campus Online Degrees
Stevens Institute of Technology Business Intelligence & Analytics Yes Yes M.S.
iSchool @ Syracuse University Data Science Yes Yes Grad Certificate
North Carolina State University Analytics Yes No M.S.
Northwestern University Predictive Analytics / Analytics No/Yes Yes/No M.S.
Stanford University Data Mining Some Courses Yes Grad Certificate
University of Cincinnati Business Analytics Yes No M.S.
Oxford University Data and Systems Analysis ? Yes Undergrad Adv. Diploma
University of California San Diego Data Mining No Yes Grad Certificate
University of Washington Data Science Yes Yes Certificate
Georgia Southern University Computer Science with concentration in Data and Knowledge Systems No Yes M.S.
University of San Francisco Analytics Yes No M.S.
Louisiana State University Analytics Yes No M.S.
Michigan State University Business Analytics Yes No M.S.
New York University Business Analytics Yes No M.S.
College of Charleston Discovery Informatics Yes No Undergraduate Minor
University of Dundee Data Science Yes No M.S.
UC Berkeley iSchool Information Management and Systems Yes No M.S.I.S. & Ph.D.
Carnegie Mellon University Business Intelligence and Data Analytics Yes No (Global) M.I.S.M.
Loras College Business Analytics Yes No MBA
Central Connecticut State University Data Mining No Yes M.S.
Imperial College London Data Science & Management Yes Yes MSc
George Mason University Informatics or Data Science yes No minor, B.S., M.S., PhD
New York University Data Science Yes No M.S.
The University of Manchester ACS: Data and Knowledge Management MSc Yes No MSc
University College London MSc Web Science and Big Data Analytics Yes No MSc
Dublin Institute of Technology MSc in Computing (Data Analytics) Yes No MSc
Sheffield Hallam University MSc Big Data Analytics Yes No MSc
Royal Holloway, University of London MSc in Big Data Yes No MSc
The University of Edinburgh Informatics MSc Yes No MSc
University College London MSc in Computational Statistics and Machine Learning Yes No MSc
University of Essex MSc Big Data and Text Analytics Yes No MSc
De Montfort University Business Intelligence Systems and Data Mining MSc/PG Dip/PG Cert Yes No MSc/Certificate
University of Greenwich MSc Data Warehousing and Data Mining Yes No MSc
University of East Anglia MSc Knowledge Discovery and Datamining Yes No MSc
University of St Andrews MSc. Applied Statistics and Datamining Yes No MSc
University College London PhD Studentships in Statistics Available: “Big Data” and its Applications Yes No PhD
Aalborg University MSc Data Engineering Yes No MSc
Linköping University MSc Statistics and Data Mining Yes No MSc
UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School Msc in Business Analytics Yes No MSc
University of Milan-Bicocca Master of Business Intelligence & Decision Support Systems (MU1) Yes No MSc
Maastricht University MSc International Business (track: Business Intelligence) Yes No MSc
Aarhus University Business Intelligence MSc Yes No MSc
University of Helsinki MSc Algorithms and Machine Learning Yes No MSc
University of Antwerp MSc Computer Science (specialization: Databases) Yes No MSc
Dalarna University MSc Business Intelligence Yes No MSc
University of Bristol MSc Advanced Computing (Machine Learning and Data Mining) Yes No MSc
Aalto University MSc Machine Learning and Data Mining Yes No MSc
KTH Royal Institute of Technology MSc Machine Learning Yes No MSc
University of Westminster MSc Business Intelligence and Analytics Yes No MSc
Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) MSc Artificial intelligence and decision specialization (M2) Yes No MSc
Sheffield Hallam University MSc Database Professional Yes No MSc
Université de Nantes MSc Data Mining and Knowledge Management Yes No MSc
TELECOM SudParis MSc Automatic Data Processing Yes No MSc
University of Liverpool MRes Advanced Science (Computer Science pathway) (Data Mining) Yes No MSc
Carnegie Mellon University Very Large Information Systems Yes No M.S.
Brown University Big Data Yes No PhD
University of Washington Big Data Yes No PhD
Penn State University Social Data Analytics Yes No PhD
University of East London Data Mining and Knowledge Management Yes No MSc
University of Technology Syndney Master of Analytics Yes No MS
George Washington University Master in Business Analytics Yes No MS
Northwestern College (Iowa) Analytics Certificate No Yes Undergrad Certificate
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Data Science & Business Statistics Yes No MSc
Bournemouth University Applied Data Analytics Yes No MSc
University of Warwick Data Analytics Yes No MSc
University of Southampton Business Analytics and Management Sciences (BAMS) Yes No MSc
University of Kent Management Science (Business Analytics) Yes No MSc
University College Dublin Computer Science (Negotiated Learning) Yes No MSc
Swansea University Modelling, Uncertainty and Data Yes No MSc
Institute of Technology Blanchardstown Computing (Business Intelligence & Data Mining) Yes No MSc
St Joseph University, PA Business Intelligence Yes Yes MS
Pace University Customer Intelligence and Analytics Yes No MS
Fordham University Business Analytics Yes No MS
NYU Stern Business Analytics Yes No MS
USC CS with Data Science Yes No MS
Birmingham City University Business Intelligence Yes No MSc
University of Surrey Business Analytics Yes No MSc
Robert Gordon University Computing: Information Engineering Yes No MSc
The University of Manchester Information Management Yes No MSc
Sheffield Hallam University Web and Cloud Computing Yes No MSc
Brunel University Business Intelligence and Social Media Yes No MSc
Warwick Business School Business Analytics & Consulting Yes No MSc
University of Leicester Data Analysis for Business Intelligence Yes No MSc
University of Reading Advanced Computer Science Yes No MSc
Illinois Inst. of Tech Specializations in Data Science Yes No BS & MS

Here is another similar list of colleges with bigdata/data science programs.

Updated: New schools added and a link to another list of graduate programs. Last update May 2013