Data Science Education at the Heart of the 21st Century University

  • David Culler | University of California, Berkeley

The Research University, rooted in the Land-Grant College Act at the outset of industrialization and transformed post-war with “Science the Endless Frontier” and GI Bill participation, is experiencing a third transformation with the broad emergence of Data Science. The transition of almost every field of discovery to becoming data-rich mirrors changes occurring in almost every segment of industry. For the future generations of researchers and the workforce, university education needs to provide much greater data science and analytics knowledge and skills. This talk presents the Data Science Education initiative at UC Berkeley, which seeks to prepare every student to understand and formulate viewpoints based on the analysis of data – from the day they arrive. It will also provide a data science degree and augmentation of a broad spectrum of majors with depth in data science. The freshman level Foundations of Data Science develops computational and inferential thinking and experience in the context of interesting question grounded in data. A suite of “Connector courses” engage diverse interests and backgrounds, while providing perspective on the Foundations. Advanced courses expand this integrative experience. The program has grown from zero to over two thousand student enrollments in two years, reflecting the tremendous student interest in their data-rich future.

Series: Microsoft Research Talks