According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the US will need to increase the number of graduates with data science skills by 60% to meet demand that is estimated to be almost 500,000 jobs in 5 years. Data science includes IT expertise, but it also includes the ability to work with extremely large data sets and to communicate analytical findings to other professionals who can leverage those findings for strategic decision making.
The graduate certificate in Data Science prepares students to apply analytic techniques and algorithms (including statistical and data mining approaches) to large data sets to extract meaningful insights. Students acquire hands-on experience with relevant software tools, languages, data models, and environments for data processing and visualization. Working in teams, students communicate results of analysis effectively (visually and verbally) to a broad audience.
This certificate is a collaborative program between Computer Science and Business Analytics. Graduate credits earned apply to MS, MEng, and MBA programs. Companies seeking data scientists include dunhumby, Procter & Gamble, Google, Twitter LinkedIn, Facebook, Amazon, Teradata, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, and many, many others.