From online streaming to healthcare systems, from retailers to researchers, the demand for knowledgeable and skilled data scientists has never been greater.
UConn has stepped up to meet the need with the launch of a new multidisciplinary Master’s in Data Science program and an inaugural full-time cohort of 20 students starting in the upcoming Fall 2022 semester.
“The demand has been nothing short of extraordinary,” says Peter Diplock, UConn’s associate vice provost for the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and co-director of the master’s program.
Based on the Storrs campus, the 11-month, 30-credit program draws on the expertise of faculty in five UConn schools and colleges: the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources; the Business School; the School of Engineering; the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences; and the Neag School of Education.
Beyond the 18-credit multidisciplinary core curriculum – which includes a strong focus on ethics as well as design, programming, machine learning and data analytics – students can choose from 12 different areas of concentration within the program ranging from bioinformatics to cybersecurity to social and behavioral analytics.
“Although the core knowledge set for students who are interested in applying data science to something like marketing are the same as someone applying it to health informatics, the way in which applied, the way you get the data, the way you treat the data, the way you interpret the data once it’s collected, will be different for someone doing marketing than someone doing health informatics,” explains Kent Holsinger, UConn’s vice provost for graduate education, dean of The Graduate School, and co-director of the master’s program.
The interest was extraordinary, and the diversity of interested students has been affirming. — Peter Diplock, Associate Vice Provost
“We wanted to make sure that students had a good, solid foundation in the fundamentals of data science,” says Holsinger, “with the opportunity to specialize in areas that were of particular interest to them and to pursue careers.”
All students in the new master’s program will complete a team-based capstone project, where they work to solve a real-world problem and develop practical skills through an experiential learning opportunity.
“We’re cultivating opportunities to work with employers in the state of Connecticut, and in the region and beyond, on projects — messy, sticky problems that are typical of the kind of projects employers face every day,” he says. Diplock. “These projects are critically important for students to be able to develop key practice competencies related to data integrity and quality, making assumptions, iterative model building, and the communication of knowledge and impacts.”
While the initial cohort will take part in an in-person program, the University plans to launch a parallel, fully online program in Fall 2023, designed for people who are working but interested in improving their skills or moving into their career.
“The interest was extraordinary, and the diversity of interested students was also affirming,” says Diplock. “When we thought of this program, we thought about a student who has an undergraduate degree in economics, or in education, or in business, or in art, or in history, or in physics or in computer science . When I say that it is affirming, it is because we are seeing exactly this, where the students who are attracted to this program come from various previous academic backgrounds.”
Planning for the new program began four years ago, when Diplock – who, in his role with the University, works to take program ideas, research them, shape them, and bring them to life – received two proposals from two heads of different departments about the launch. new programs in data science. He recruited a diverse faculty team to explore the concept, to connect with industry, and to really learn what knowledge skills and abilities employers needed from data science graduates.
“It was at a time when there was a lot around data analytics, but data science was really emerging as a kind of distinct field,” he explains, “and as I got to understand the space better, I got more convinced that this. it was truly a multidisciplinary space. In our program, the extent to which we have embraced and intentionally sought a multidisciplinary approach is unique.”
As is the program’s focus on ethics – while all students in the program must complete a dedicated two-credit course in data ethics, ethical concepts have been intentionally woven into all elements of the curriculum.
“It’s really vital when people are dealing with data, especially these huge data sets that are now available and widely used, to be very careful when they think about how the data was collected, what biases might have been embedded in -data collection itself, and then what biases can arise from using different algorithms,” says Holsinger.
“Models by their nature are going to be imprecise,” says Diplock, “and we owe it to people to make sure our students deeply understand the ethical implications of the models they’re building and being they can take those conversations from the front, as opposed to the side.”
For more information about UConn’s Masters (MS) in Data Science program, visit masters.datascience.uconn.edu.
