Data Science Certificate Created

Like all sciences, computer science is an ever-evolving field and today it feels like the speed of evolution is approaching warp speed!

Through constant assessment and engagement from numerous industry partners, the Department of Computer Science charts its course and responds to these changes. This year, the department proudly announced the creation of a new Data Science Certificate.

Dr. Casey Kennington (Assistant Professor in Computer science) says the Data Science Certificate is available for any major and will open additional opportunities to students seeking to attain this certificate. The ability to collect substantial data offers today’s industries and organizations an opportunity to learn more about their markets and efforts. Data science helps pull meaning from this collected data, using a variety of tools and approaches.

As reported by Forbes, the 2019 Data Science and Machine Learning Market Study found that “70% of R&D departments and teams are most likely to adopt data science, AI, and machine learning, leading all functions in an enterprise.” In addition to this certificate, a Machine Learning emphasis is being developed for Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science students.

Below are the CS courses offered as well as the math requirements. The certificate is made up for 4 main CS courses, meant to be taken in sequence. Note that there are some MATH course prereqs and coreqs.

• CS 133 Foundations of Data Science (intro to python, scientific thinking, data analysis, basic statistics, data visualization)
• CS 233 Essentials of Data Science (deep dive into data science libraries like numpy, pandas, data munging, probability and information theory, intro to supervised classification, prereq: CS 133)
• CS 334 Algorithms for Machine Learning (supervised and unsupervised classification, feature engineering, evaluation, ethical considerations of machine learning; prereqs CS 233, MATH 360/1, co-req: MATH 301)
• CS 411 Databases for Data Scientists (very similar to CS 410, though python will be the project language; prereq: CS 233)
  These courses are meant to be taken in sequence, though students could take CS 334 and CS 411 at the same time if they are offered concurrently. For CS majors, CS 334 and CS 411 courses can count both towards this certificate and towards CS electives, which means that earning this certificate only adds 6 additional credits to the CS degree.

Please email Dr. Casey Kennington (caseykennington@boisestate.edu) for more information.