DATA SCIENCE

Data Science focuses on planning for acquisition, management, analysis of, and inference from data. Government and industry alike are experiencing a massive growth in the volume, velocity, and variety of available data. As a result, a competitive advantage is available to those with Data Science knowledge, skills, and abilities. In fact, according to Forbes, Data Scientist was the #1 Best Job in America for four consecutive years from 2016-2019.

Military leaders with Data Science education and training will be critical to winning the wars of the future. The 2018 National Defense Strategy identified advanced computing, “big data” analytics, and artificial intelligence as new technologies that are changing the character of war. All of these technologies, and more, are incorporated into the Data Science major. Graduates of the Data Science program will be armed with the expertise necessary to transform data into actionable insight for faster and more effective decision making. As stated by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General David Goldfein, “It’s not enough to have more data than our adversaries. It’s how we understand the information and use it at the speed of relevance that matters.”

Data Science is an interdisciplinary major led by the Departments of Computer & Cyber Sciences and Mathematical Sciences, with support from the Departments of Management and Philosophy. The curriculum has a heavy emphasis on programming and applied statistics, but also offers students an opportunity to select a focus track in which they apply skills learned in the major to another discipline. The major includes ample opportunity for student research in partnership with organizations in both government and industry.