Data Science

Degree Type
Department
Academic Division The College
Offerings Minor
We live in a world increasingly driven by data. Data science is a rapidly expanding, multidisciplinary field that draws on statistics, computer science and math, with applications in a wide variety of academic disciplines and industries. We extract meaning from data to learn more about the world and society.

Data Science 

The data science minor allows students to complement discipline-specific skills and knowledge with a deeper understanding of how to analyze and extract meaning from data to learn more about the world, society and their discipline. We prepare students to be excellent data analysts in their major disciplines and to be prepared to effectively work with data after graduation. Students:

  • Collect and analyze data in a reproducible and ethically responsible manner
  • Obtain data through searching, scraping, mining or experimental methods
  • Parse, transform and generate wide-ranging data sets for analysis
  • Statistically analyze data to summarize, draw inferences and make predictions
  • Identify patterns and relationships in datasets using visualization and algorithms
  • Communicate data methods and conclusions to diverse audiences

Students trained in data science can apply their skills in a wide variety of ways including serving as central operations manager at Uber (Holley Beasley ’15), working as executive vice president at Microstrategy (Rich Cober ’96), and serving as head of industry at Google (Ames McArdle ’02).   

DataCon

W&L hosts DataCon, where people from all corners of industry come to discuss the impacts of data science on industry and the world. Students from all over the university, from biology to sociology to business, participate in the Data Science Program to learn from each other and discover how to ethically learn from data.  

Gregg Whitworth

Interim Program Head

Taylor McCoy

Administrative Assistant

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Meet the Faculty

At W&L, students enjoy small classes and close relationships with professors who educate and nurture.