We are happy to announce the Minor in Data Science!

The Minor in Data Science is designed to provide students with practical knowledge of the concepts and techniques used in data analysis, including statistical methodology, data-oriented computing, and data ethics. The minor will empower students across a wide array of majors (including Biology, Math, Geoscience, Physics, Neuroscience, Business, Public Policy, etc.) with the foundational skills to design, implement, and think critically about inferential analysis within their respective disciplines. Students will gain exposure to data collection, data cleaning, data integration, data management, and data visualization, as well as the techniques necessary for data analysis and machine learning.

Students who complete the minor in Data Science will be able to:

1. use basic programming concepts and techniques in Python or R to clean, wrangle, and organize data;
2. perform exploratory data analysis and visualization of datasets;
3. connect real-world objectives in data analysis to formal mathematical tools;
4. understand issues related to bias, fairness, and privacy with respect to data science applications and ML algorithms;
5. apply data science techniques to problems from various disciplines and communicate results to stakeholders.

The Minor in Data Science is an interdisciplinary minor offered by the Bourns College of Engineering (BCOE) and the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (CNAS).

Program Requirements

The minor requires a total of eight courses (33 units) of which three are lower division courses (13 units) and five are upper division courses (20 units). The lower division courses will provide foundational computing and statistical knowledge, as well as satisfy the prerequisite requirements necessary for the upper division courses.  

The following are the requirements for the Data Science minor.

1. Lower-division requirements (13 units):

                CS 009A; CS 009B; STAT 008 or STAT 010
 
2. Upper-division requirements (20 units):
                a) CS 105
                b) STAT 156A
                c) CS 108 / STAT 108
                d) Eight (8) units of the upper-division  courses selected from the list below: 
                    CS 100, CS 166, CS 167, CS 170, CS 171, CS 172, STAT 107, STAT 130, STAT 140, STAT 146, STAT 156B, STAT 167 

                                                

No more than 4 units may be in courses numbered 190 through 199 can be used as electives. Completion of CS 009A and CS 009B with a C- or better and completion of the minor requirements with at least 2.700 GPA is required.

Program Restrictions

Students with majors in Computer Science, Computer Science with Business Applications, Computer Engineering, Data Science, and Statistics are not eligible.

Declaring a Minor in Data Science

The Data Science minor is offered by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (within the Bourns College of Engineering) and by the Department of Statistics (within the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences). To declare the minor, students can meet with an advisor in the BCOE Office of Students Academic Affairs or the CNAS Undergraduate Academic Advising Center. 

Sincerely,