According to the Harvard Business Review and reported in the New York Times data science is “the sexiest job in the 21st century.” Experts expect that this hot new field promises to revolutionize industries from business to government, health care to academia.
According to Rachel Schutt, a research scientist at Johnson Research Labs who taught an introduction to data science course at Columbia, a data scientist is “a hybrid computer scientist software engineer statistician.”
The exciting news for CS educators is that is data science offers that exciting blend of CS with real-world problems to be solved in medicine, social media, business — basically everything. Universities are busy creating courses and programs to fill the growing demand. It is estimated that there will be almost half a million jobs in five years, and a shortage of up to 190,000 qualified data scientists. In addition, 1.5 million executives and support staff who have an understanding of data will be needed.
Want to explore the concepts a bit yourself or invite students to take a test drive? Check out the free online course Introduction to Data Science, offered by the University of Washington.
Pat Phillips, Editor
CSTA Voice