“Data science is beneficial across all industries”
July 2024 – Drew’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies‘ Master of Science in Data Science focuses on drawing information from data in a variety of applications, structured to center on the intersections of statistics, computer science, and technologies.
“Data science has been compared to computer science,” said Associate Professor of Computer Science Alex Rudniy, whose research interests surround AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and time series forecasting.
With the ongoing growth of data applications across multiple industries and the rise of AI, data science is proving to be a growing field with a strong job market.
“Today, graduates with a data science degree earn higher starting salaries than graduates with a computer science degree, which demonstrates the strong demand,” said Rudniy. “Companies will compensate well for the experience.”
Rudniy’s Artificial Intelligence course is popular amongst Drew students. “I encourage students to utilize AI in the classroom,” he said. “They use it to generate code. It can provide help for routine operations.”
“AI is growing and technically within the realm of data science,” continued Rudniy. “Data scientists are credited with making AI more relevant and helpful. Over the past several decades, companies have accumulated a lot of big data. AI feeds on this big data and data scientists are needed to process the data, identify trends, and create analytics.”
Drew’s Data Science program also centers on applied data science projects and internship opportunities across many different disciplines and industries. Students are able to complete the program with a portfolio of data science projects highlighting the practical application of acquired skills through internships and case study projects.
“Data science is beneficial across all industries,” said Rudniy. “Many of my students have had great success in finding internships as students and full-time positions once they graduate.”
In addition to the MS, Drew offers a 12-credit Data Science certificate program. Both the MS and certificate can be completed in one year or two.
