Data Science BSDS

Major: Data Science
Degree Awarded: Bachelor of Science in Data Science (BSDS)
Calendar Type: Quarter
Minimum Required Credits: 183.0
Co-op Options: Three Co-op (Five years); One Co-op (Four years)
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 30.7001
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 11-3021; 15-1221; 15-1243; 15-2041; 15-2051

About the Program

The Bachelor of Science in Data Science (BSDS) prepares students to meet the challenges presented by the explosive growth of very large scale and complex data sources. The availability of data from sources such as business activities, social media, and scientific instruments constantly creates new problems requiring data-driven solutions and opportunities and problems for innovation. BS in Data Science students develop the knowledge and skill to address these opportunities for the benefit of individuals and organizations. Students in the degree complete a minor, typically in business or the sciences, to provide knowledge and skill in a specific subject area to which data science techniques can be applied.

Data Science students learn to:

• Define domain specific and context-relevant data analytics questions and hypotheses for individuals and organizations
• Select relevant data sources and transform data suitable for solving data analytics problems
• Identify appropriate techniques and tools for acquiring, retrieving, analyzing, and making use of the data
• Apply data analytics techniques and skills to build analytical and predictive models for answering data science questions
• Create visualizations and communicate data analytics results to stakeholders and decision-makers
• Assess the necessary skills arising from the interdisciplinary nature of data science as a combination of hacking skills, analytical techniques, and domain knowledge

The degrees in Computing and Security Technology, Data Science, and Information Systems share a common first year. This allows students to easily switch among the degrees early in their studies. In addition, some of the electives in each degree are accessible to students in the other two majors; this provides a deeper and broader set of advanced topics for students in all three majors.

Additional Information

For more information about this program, please visit the BS in Data Science webpage on the College of Computing & Informatics website.

Degree Requirements

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Students should consult their academic advisor regarding a minor that requires more than 24.0 credits. Please note: If a Business Administration Minor is selected, MIS classes do not count towards the Business Administration Minor for Data Science students. Students must choose another option to fulfill the Business Administration Minor requirements.

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COOP 101 registration is determined by the co-op cycle assigned and may be scheduled in a different term. Select students may be eligible to take COOP 001 in place of COOP 101.

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Arts & Humanities, Business, or Social Studies Electives (Exclude: courses that are counted as other requirements and electives):

• Business electives: any ACCT, BLAW, BUSN, ECON, ENTP, FIN, HRMT, INTB, MGMT, MIS, MKTG, OPM, OPR, ORGB, STAT, TAX
• Social Studies electives: any AFAS, ANTH, GST, HIST, JWST, PSCI, PSY, SOC, WGST
• Arts & Humanities electives: any ARCH, ARTH, CMGT, CJS, COM, CULA, DANC, EDEX, EDUC, ENGL (except ENGL 101, ENGL 102, ENGL 103, ENGL 105, ENGL 111, ENGL 112, ENGL 113), ESTM, FASH, FMST, FMVD, GST, INTR, LING, MUSC, PHIL, PHTO, THTR, VSCM, VSST, WRIT, Foreign Language courses as defined by the College of Arts and Sciences, and GMAP 260, ANIM 140, ANIM 141, ANIM 211, ANIM 212

Writing-Intensive Course Requirements

In order to graduate, all students must pass three writing-intensive courses after their freshman year. Two writing-intensive courses must be in a student's major. The third can be in any discipline. Students are advised to take one writing-intensive class each year, beginning with the sophomore year, and to avoid “clustering” these courses near the end of their matriculation. Transfer students need to meet with an academic advisor to review the number of writing-intensive courses required to graduate.

A "WI" next to a course in this catalog may indicate that this course can fulfill a writing-intensive requirement. For the most up-to-date list of writing-intensive courses being offered, students should check the Writing Intensive Course List at the University Writing Program. Students scheduling their courses can also conduct a search for courses with the attribute "WI" to bring up a list of all writing-intensive courses available that term.

Sample Plan of Study

5 year, 3 co-op

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COOP 101 registration is determined by the co-op cycle assigned and may be scheduled in a different term. Select students may be eligible to take COOP 001 in place of COOP 101.

4 year, 1 co-op

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COOP 101 registration is determined by the co-op cycle assigned and may be scheduled in a different term.  Select students may be eligible to take COOP 001 in place of COOP 101.

Co-op/Career Opportunities

Co-Op Options

Two co-op options are available for this program:

• five-year/three co-op
• four-year/one co-op

Career Opportunities

The Data Science major provides valuable skills that can be transported to a number of job settings. The demand for graduates with data science knowledge is strong, and employers often want evidence of additional communication and problem-solving skills that can be applicable to specific disciplines. Data Science program graduates could potentially serve as key members of organizational data science teams able to create novel information products, with an emphasis on solving problems that can only be addressed using large and disparate data sources. The program is also an excellent preparation for graduate study in data science.

Sample job titles for data science graduates include:

• Data Scientist
• Business Intelligence Officer
• Information Architect
• Usability Analyst

Additional Information

Visit the Drexel Steinbright Career Development Center page for more detailed information on co-op and post-graduate opportunities.

3675 Market Street

The College of Computing & Informatics is located at 3675 Market. Occupying three floors in the modern uCity Square building, CCI's home offers state-of-the-art technology in our classrooms, research labs, offices, meeting areas and collaboration spaces. 3675 Market offers Class A laboratory, office, coworking, and convening spaces. Located at the intersection of Market Street and 37th Street, 3675 Market acts as a physical nexus, bridging academic campuses and medical centers to the east and south, the commercial corridors along Market Street and Chestnut Street, and the residential communities to the north and west.

The uCity Square building offers:

• Speculative lab/office space
• World-class facilities operated by CIC
• Café/restaurant on-site
• Quorum, a two-story, 15K SF convening space and conference center
• Adjacent to future public square
• Access to Science Center’s nationally renowned business acceleration and technology commercialization programs

Drexel University Libraries

The Drexel University Libraries is a one-stop resource for all members of the Drexel community, providing access to millions of print and online books, journals, databases and other media, as well as hundreds of online course and research guides, workshops, and tutorials. Expert librarians offer a variety of consultation services virtually or in person, including help with course-related projects, strategies for finding and evaluating authoritative information, and approaches to utilizing, organizing, and presenting scholarship.

Students in the College of Computing & Informatics also have access to the W. W. Hagerty Library where they can take advantage of the Libraries’ various learning environments, including group study rooms, collaborative and silent study areas, and 24/7 study space in the Dragons’ Learning Den. The Libraries also offers a wellness room, printing and scanning services, and laptops, portable power chargers, and other equipment you can borrow for use in the Library.

CCI Commons

Located on the 10th floor of 3675 Market Street, the CCI Commons is an open lab and collaborative work environment for students. It features desktop computers, a wireless/laptop area, free black and white printing, and more collaborative space for its students. Students have access to 3675 Market's fully equipped conference room with 42” displays and videoconferencing capabilities. The CCI Commons provides technical support to students, faculty, and professional staff. In addition, the staff provides audio-visual support for all presentation classrooms within 3675 Market. Use of the CCI Commons is reserved for all students taking CCI courses.

The computers for general use are Microsoft Windows and Macintosh OSX machines with appropriate applications which include the Microsoft Office suite, various database management systems, modeling tools, and statistical analysis software. Library-related resources may be accessed at the CCI Commons and through the W.W. Hagerty Library. The College is a member of the "Azure Dev Tools for Teaching” platform that allows students free access to a wide array of Microsoft software titles and operating systems.

The CCI Commons, student labs, and classrooms have access to networked databases, print and file resources within the College, and the Internet via the University’s network. Email accounts, Internet and BannerWeb access are available through the Office of Information Resources and Technology.

Computer Support for Teaching

The CCI server room houses a multitude of servers to support faculty research, staff operations, and student learning. Services provided include a Linux compute cluster which is open to all faculty, staff, and students, multiple virtualization environments to meet different needs of faculty, staff, and students, and other single-purpose servers to support various operations throughout the college. The compute cluster provides a common environment for students to develop software, which makes testing easier for the TAs and faculty. Our virtualization environments allow college members the flexibility of a cloud environment with local support and direct cost recovery options. For those who need dedicated hardware, we also support dedicated research systems.

Classrooms are outfitted with laser projectors, 4K displays, class capture hardware, and the Wolfvision Cynap. The Cynap controls the AV distribution throughout the room and can display up to 4 streams simultaneously. These include the local PC, a laptop connected directly to the podium, or up to 4 streaming devices. Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices can all connect wirelessly to the presentation system, allowing collaboration and freedom to roam the classroom for better interactivity. Wireless networking and outlets are also available for students throughout the classrooms. Laptops are available for checkout from the CCI Commons desk.

Additionally, CCI is hosting and supporting multiple Virtual Computing Lab environments for students to use that mimics the physical computer labs in CCI. This technology allows both online and face to face students to have the same experience when using computing facilities.

CCI Virtual Environments

CCI hosts a variety of virtual environments, which support all levels of research, academics, and administration at CCI. These include OpenStack, Proxmox VE, VMWare, and Xen architectures, backed by storage in CEPH. Multiple environments allow CCI IT to provide researchers with the level of control appropriate for the project at hand and make efficient use of project funding. External cloud vendors such as AWS and Google Cloud Platform are also used when appropriate.

CCI continues to invest in these virtual environments, and explores emerging environments, to continue to best support CCI research and teaching. CPU cores, storage, and memory are added at every opportunity to these flexible, scalable environments. The current capacity of the system includes:

• 1760 CPU Cores
• 6 TB of Memory
• Over 556 TB of HDD-backed storage
• 122 TB of high-performance SSD-backed storage
• 12 GPUs with room for expansion through funded research for high-performance computing needs

CCI Learning Center

The CCI Learning Center (CLC), located in 3675 Market Street's CCI Commons student computer lab, provides consulting and other learning resources for students taking courses offered by the Computer Science Department. The CLC is staffed by graduate and undergraduate computer science students from the College of Computing & Informatics.

The CLC and CCI Commons serve as a central hub for small group work, student meetings, and TA assistance. 

Research Laboratories

The College houses multiple research labs, led by CCI faculty, in 3675 Market Street including: the Metadata Research Center (MRC), Interactive Systems for Healthcare (IS4H) Research, Economics and Computation (EconCS), The TeX-Base Lab, SPiking And Recurrent SoftwarE (SPARSE) Coding, Human-System Evaluation and Analysis Lab (H-SEAL), Applied Symbolic Computation Laboratory (ASYM), Security and Privacy Analytics Lab (SePAL), Software Engineering and Analytics Research (SOAR), Software Engineering Research Group (SERG), Social Computing Research Group, Vision and Cognition Laboratory (VisCog). For more information on these laboratories, please visit the College’s research web page.

Program Level Outcomes

The College of Computing & Informatics works continually to improve its degree programs. As part of this effort, the Data Science degree is evaluated relative to the following Objectives and Outcomes.

BS Data Science Program Educational Objectives

Within three to five years of graduation, alumni of the program are expected to achieve one or more of the following milestones:

• Be valued contributors to private or public organizations as demonstrated by promotions, increased responsibility, or other professional recognition
• Contribute to professional knowledge as demonstrated by published papers, technical reports, patents, or conference presentations
• Succeed in continuing professional development as demonstrated by completion of graduate studies or professional certifications
• Display commitment and leadership within the professional and community as demonstrated by contributions towards society's greater good and prosperity

BS Data Science Program Student Outcomes

The program enables students to attain by the time of graduation

• An ability to apply knowledge of computing and mathematics appropriate to the discipline
• An ability to analyze a problem, and identify and define the computing requirements appropriate to its solution
• An ability to design, implement, and evaluate a computer-based system, process, component, or program to meet desired needs
• An ability to function effectively on teams to accomplish a common goal
• An understanding of professional, ethical, legal, security, and social issues
• An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
• An ability to analyze the local and global impact of computing on individuals, organizations, and society
• Recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in continuing professional development
• An ability to use current techniques, skills, and tools necessary for computing practice