College of Arts and Sciences - Spring 2021 - University of Miami

CLASSSPOTLIGHT
A First Date
with Data
New course designed to decode data science for all
From healthcare to transportation to online shopping,
data permeates every aspect of modern life.
Its principles and applications spur knowledge and
insights in a wide range of disciplines and
endeavors. Rather than being all about number-crunching,
data analysis even has applications in the humanities.
To engage and enlighten students interested in pursuing
data science, the College of Arts and Sciences launched a
Master of Science in Data Science program in Fall 2020.
The College is now unveiling an undergraduate course in
the topic with a distinctly global name: “Data Science for
the World,” open to students from any major.
According to the course’s creators, the sweeping scale of
that title is deliberate.
“The main thing we want to convey about the new course
is its interdisciplinary nature,” says Jerry Bonnell, a
doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science,
who developed the class in collaboration with Mitsunori
Ogihara, a professor of computer science. “We want it to
be approachable from any discipline and welcoming to
students from all majors.”
“Data Science for the World” represents the first attempt
by the department and College to offer an introduction to
data science, specifically designed for accessibility to students
pursuing studies outside of the typical STEM
(science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) rubric.
“We hope to attract as many students as possible,
because we believe data science is becoming a fundamental
skill in the future job market,” says Ogihara. “Students will
leave the course with new knowledge on how to engage
with data and a set of tools they can use in their studies
and careers.
“Our goal is to draw from as many real-world examples and
settings as we can—and to have some fun along the way.”
In that spirit, course assignments, topics, and projects
will include a case study of football statistics, inspired by
the “Deflategate” controversy stemming from a 2014 New
England Patriots NFL game; financial analysis of stock
market prices; Harvard University admissions data broken
out by race; a novel approach to visualizing data scales;
a data-driven approach to analyzing the popular fantasy
game “Dungeons and Dragons”; and the use of regression
analysis to predict everything from Old Faithful eruptions
at Yellowstone National Park to Spotify music stream
popularity.
“Data science does some of its best work when it
reaches beyond its own discipline,” Bonnell says, noting its
applications for liberal arts disciplines such as the classics,
history, and literature. “For example, for scholars studying
the works of Shakespeare and of authors of the ancient
world such as Homer and Virgil, the body of available texts
can be so large that no one can possibly read them all.
Data tools such as textual analysis provide new lenses with
which to broaden perspective and deepen understanding.”
If the course goes as Ogihara and Bonnell hope, students
drawn from an array of academic programs and majors
will come away prepared to apply data analysis to a wide
range of situations. It will also inspire students intrigued
by the power of data to dig deeper.
“Sitting at the intersection of computer science and other
departments, the course will serve as a conduit to more
advanced classes such as statistical learning and the computational
sciences,” Bonnell says.
“By providing that bridge for students, I think we’ll
achieve something great.” To learn more about the
Department of Computer Science, visit csc.as.miami.edu. n3
20
SPRING 2021