Bachelor of Science in Data Science

The Bachelor of Science in Data Science degree is designed to provide undergraduate students with the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills needed to become a data scientist.

Through this program, students will learn the fundamentals of statistical and algorithmic tools while also gaining experience with methods appropriate for managing and processing big data. The curriculum is a mix of theoretical topics and project driven coursework.

This interdisciplinary program brings together coursework and faculty from many departments, including Computer Science & Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, and Industrial and Systems Engineering, into a singular, comprehensive curriculum.

The degree requires a minimum of 120 credits. Credits will come from required coursework in math, science, computer science, statistics, industrial engineering, and technical writing. Students must also complete 18 credits minimum from a diverse list of approved technical electives. Students must also complete all University of Minnesota Liberal Education requirements. The culmination of the program is a required capstone course where students work directly with a faculty member on an agreed upon project.

Why pursue a degree in Data Science at the University of Minnesota?

There is a growing demand for talented professionals that can harvest, process, analyze data and extract insights. There is no single discipline at the University of Minnesota that brings together these diverse skills to solve such societal problems. This is a new and growing academic discipline that has attracted significant attention in business, physical sciences, biological and health sciences, and research. 

A number of high profile research reports and articles suggest the growing demand-and-supply gap and the need for developing human capital in all these areas. Broadly trained data scientists are needed by a wide variety of organizations such as large internet companies like Google and Microsoft, retail firms like Walmart and Target or smaller regional retailers, financial firms like banks or credit card companies, many different Government departments in the military, intelligence, law enforcement, human services, health, as well as in scientific and medical research.

The University of Minnesota already has a uniquely large combination of faculty in data management and analysis, predictive modeling, machine learning, statistical analysis, and their applications across the entire gamut of areas. This expertise is distributed over several departments and colleges, and the key goal of this program is to provide a single mechanism to make all this expertise easily accessible to the student. 

Careers

Big data engineer
Business intelligence analyst
Data engineer
Data mining analyst
Data scientist
Data warehouse architect
Database administrator
Information officer
Machine learning engineer
Statistician