2024-2025 Undergraduate Hill Book
Data Science, B.S.
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The Data Science major is offered by the Interdisciplinary Studies Department in the May School of Arts and Sciences .
Hsin-hao Su
Duffy Academic Center 231
508-565-1242
hsu@stonehill.edu
Hassan Bajwa
College Center 110D
508-565-1126
hbajwa@stonehill.edu
Data science is the study of data: how to collect, explore, manipulate, model, and visualize data in order to answer questions about the world. Data scientists use tools from mathematics, statistics, and computer science to develop data analysis methods and work with unusual or complex datasets, using technical and intellectual problem-solving skills, rigorous reasoning, and persuasive expression. To develop their skills, data science majors take courses in topics like probability and statistics, linear algebra, database management and artificial intelligence. As data science can be applied to a variety of different subject areas, data science majors also complete a minor in another subject of their choice. Finally, data science majors complete a capstone project which applies their data science skills to their minor subject.
Learning Goals
- Students will develop effective thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills.
- state problems carefully, articulate assumptions, understand the importance of clear definition of questions and goals, and reason logically to conclusions. This will include the concept of translating questions from the business/client perspective to answerable questions based in data;
- evaluate the quality of data and collection methods, create statistically reasonable data collection plans, devise effective experiments to answer questions and test conjectures;
- identify, explore, describe, and model essential features of a complex situation. Select appropriate statistical and visualization methods to discover key insights in data. Build and modify models as necessary for prediction, classification, generation, and exploratory tasks, and draw useful conclusions;
- evaluate the quality and effectiveness of solutions using data, consider human contexts and ethics;
- communicate results clearly and coherently both verbally and in writing to audiences of varying technical backgrounds.
- Students will learn to apply data science principles to other domains.
- encounter real-world applications of data science, both inside and outside of the computational sciences, that motivate and illustrate the ideas they are studying;
- develop domain knowledge of another discipline through a minor and apply that knowledge to complete a capstone project involving both data science and their minor discipline.
- Students will learn to use technological tools.
- use and manage databases;
- become proficient in at least one modern programming language, both theoretically and as a tool used efficiently in the above goals.
- Students will develop independence and experience open-ended inquiry.
- prepare students to pursue open-ended questions and to speak and write about methods, techniques, and applications with increasing depth and sophistication.
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