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Roundtable on Data Science Postsecondary Education A Compilation of Meeting Highlights (2020) / Chapter Skim
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8 Meeting #7: Programs and Approaches for Data Science Education at the Ph.D. Level
Pages 94-106

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From page 94...
... programs, including stand-alone degrees, domain-based concentrations, and activities begun under the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) former Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program.
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From page 95...
... The curriculum requires five core CDS courses -- Introduction to Data Science, Probability and Statistics for Data Science, Machine Learning, Big Data, and Inference and Representation -- and a multitude of electives from across the university. Over the course of the program, students participate in formal research rotations with faculty, take a qualifying exam and a comprehensive exam, and complete a dissertation.
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From page 96...
... Devavrat Shah, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wondered how faculty members balance their time developing courses for data science and teaching in their home departments. Dhar noted that currently those types of decisions are negotiated by the provost and the dean, although such processes will likely become formalized in the future.
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From page 97...
... Requirements include a course and a qualifying exam in probability; a course and a qualifying exam in statistics; coursework in computation; studies in practical data analysis;2 and a research oral exam. In response to a question from Ullman about whether requiring a qualifying exam in statistics but not computation emphasized data analysis over problem solving, Spielman explained ­ that the coursework requires successful problem solving, as does the practical data exam.
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From page 98...
... Institute for Data, Systems, and Society,5 as an interdisciplinary academic center with the mission to advance statistics and data science programs and research activities across campus. The SDSC encourages connections with the social sciences, life sciences, and computational sciences.
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From page 99...
... Dhar noted that 7 The website for SDSCon is https://stat.mit.edu/calendar/sdscon-statistics-data-­ cience s center-conference/, accessed February 13, 2020.
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From page 100...
... in data science allows for broad inquiry. Horton suggested that roundtable members read the National Academies' report Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century (NASEM, 2018a)
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From page 101...
... Both credential programs are especially attractive to students in computer science, statistics, mathematics, and domain sciences, Temple Lang continued, because they give students practice with real data science problems. Both programs prepare graduates who seek employment outside of academia as well as graduates who may want to teach data science in a discipline.
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From page 102...
... " He reiterated that data science has a unique culture and concept; therefore, an academic home that emphasizes the data science process, the entire data science pipeline, and multi­ disciplinarity is essential. Such a home encourages students to engage in systematic research in workflows, data science problem-framing, computational environments for data analysis, data visualization, data sources and fusion, reproducibility, and ethics.
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From page 103...
... With funding from the College of Liberal Arts, SSSP expanded into the campus-wide Quantitative Social Science Initiative in 2006. The BDSS-IGERT grant of $3 million in 2012 allowed for 2-year academic research rotations in interdisciplinary projects and summer externships for students, initial plans to create the SoDA curriculum, and community building through the establishment of the "Databasement" -- a central campus location where SoDA students meet.
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From page 104...
... Balazinska commented that UW's formal data science education programs include a Ph.D. in a discipline with either an "advanced data science option"13 or a "data science option"14; an undergraduate degree with a data science option; a professional data science master's degree; and a variety of professional certificates.
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From page 105...
... In response to a question from McKeown, Balazinska confirmed that UW would like to expand its data science options in the humanities and social sciences. Replying to Atma Sahu, Coppin State University, B ­ alazinska said that the core domain framework for both options was initially developed by the eScience Education Working Group and continues to evolve.
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From page 106...
... The scope, scale, and topic of a particular project would also influence the type of knowledge and training best suited for success. On behalf of his group, Frew summarized discussions in response to the following question: Data science education at the Ph.D.
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Key Terms

  • temple lang
  • science education
  • science option
  • accessed february
  • big data

  • advanced data
  • science departments
  • science options
  • escience institute
  • home department

  • integrative graduate
  • academic unit
  • penn state
  • qualifying exam
  • data social

  • social data
  • emerging data
  • data visualization
  • practical data
  • data analytics

  • entire data
  • science tool
  • science integrative
  • science center
  • science initiative

  • science practice
  • research traineeship
  • systematic research
  • escience education
  • lang noted


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