Data Science

Overview

The emerging discipline of Data Science has become essential to making decisions, understanding observations, and solving problems in today’s world.  Whether we want to apply artificial intelligence techniques to a problem, build a computational model of real-world phenomena, statistically test a hypothesis, or analyze structured, textual or image data, data science and data analysis techniques are becoming an essential part of every scientist, researcher, engineer, and policy maker’s tool chest.

Penn’s Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) in Data Science (DATS) prepares students for a wide range of data-centric careers, whether in technology and engineering, policy-making, consulting, or science.

About the Program

The Data Science program can typically be completed in one-and-a-half to two years. It blends leading-edge courses in core topics such as machine learning, big data analytics, and statistics, with a variety of electives and an opportunity to apply these techniques in a target domain specialization – a concentration – of choice.

The concentrations offer both preparatory coursework and a thesis or practicum in a data science application area. Potential concentrations include Network Science (the Warren Center for Network and Data Science), Digital Humanities (the Price Lab for Digital Humanities), Biomedicine (the Institute for Biomedical Informatics), and Public Policy (the Annenberg Center for Public Policy) – as well as more traditional opportunities in Computer and Information Science and Electrical and Systems Engineering. Moreover, for students interested in other areas within Penn Engineering and the physical sciences regarding computers, Penn Engineering offers a specialized and synergistic MSE Degree in Scientific Computing. For students interested in the online Master’s in Data Science program, please go here.

Prerequisites

The MSE in Data Science targets students who have strong mathematical and statistical proficiency, and some programming experience.

Student Story

Ignacio Arranz: Voices of Penn Engineering Master’s Students

This article is written by Ignacio Arranz, who is currently a first-year student in the Data Science program (DATS) and is part of the first DATS cohort. The DATS program is the newest master’s degree offering at Penn Engineering, preparing students for a wide range of data-centric careers, whether in technology and engineering, consulting, science, policy-making, or understanding patterns in literature, art or communications.