Program Coordinator/Contact
Kurt Cogswell, Department Head
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Architecture, Mathematics, and Engineering 209
605-688-6196
Program Information
The Data Science major prepares students to use the power of data to help organizations of all sorts and society as a whole to make better decisions. Students learn to use mathematics, statistics, and computational tools to analyze data, and learn to communicate the results of their analysis in order to produce the greatest positive impact. Completion of Option 1 of the Data Science major will allow students to transfer 60 credits of coursework towards many bachelor’s degree programs in the applied, social, or natural sciences that can be enhanced by additional data science focus. Completion of Option 2 of the Data Science major will allow students to transfer 60 credits of coursework towards B.S. in Data Science or the B.S. in Mathematics with Data Science Specialization.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the Data Science major, students should be able to:
- gather requirements from professional contexts and translate them into a clearly articulated data analysis problem.
- identify and gather the data necessary for the analysis and prepare the data for analysis.
- select the optimal combination of mathematical and statistical techniques necessary to solve this problem.
- select those software tools and computing environments that are optimal for implementing these mathematical and statistical techniques.
- conduct the analysis in a manner that produces well-understood and reproducible results, and avoids common analytical and ethical problems associated with data analysis.
- interpret the results of the analysis to generate actionable intelligence, and;
- communicate the results of the analysis to stakeholders in the optimal combination of written, graphical/visual, and verbal means.
Course Delivery Format
Program courses are delivered on campus, in classroom and laboratory settings, and online.
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