Skip to Content

Data Science and Analytics

The University of Mount Union’s major in data science and analytics provides students with the in-demand expertise needed to obtain meaningful insights from vast quantities of complex data. 

The major is grounded in practical, hands-on training and is relevant for students with myriad interests; by working with real-world data and sector-specific case studies, students gain familiarity with diverse industries including healthcare, marketing, politics, sports analytics, and epidemiology. Motivated students can complement the major with a minor and/or second major in a wide variety of fields from the applied, health, natural, and/or social sciences. There is no prior knowledge in programming required to take the introductory course.

The program reflects the increased demand for data scientists across a variety of disciplines. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Emerging Jobs Report, “data roles, specifically data scientist and data engineer roles, are increasing steadily.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the overall career growth in data related fields to be between 16-31% through 2028.

The 46-credit major provides students with marketable and transferrable skills, including the ability to:

  • Articulate an empirical question relevant to a body of data
  • Interface with the data using the most popular programming languages in the field
  • Leverage training in statistics and computer science to identify appropriate methods (for example, machine learning) to extract meaningful information from the data
  • Design and write computer code to carry out the analysis
  • Create appropriate visual representations of the data and results of the analysis
  • Connect the results to the empirical question
  • Communicate the findings to technical and non-technical audiences

  

Curriculum


Data Science Courses

  • DSC 140 Data Science Fundamentals
  • DSC 240 Data Analysis and Visualization
  • DSC 250 Scientific Modeling and Data Analysis
  • DSC 330 Data Acquisition and Analysis
  • DSC 340 Machine Learning and Neural Networks
  • DSC 350 Data Mining
  • DSC 360 Big Data Analytics
  • DSC 440 Data Science Practicum

Major Required Courses

  • MTH 141 Calculus I
  • MTH 142 Calculus II
  • BUS 100 Introduction to Business
  • MTH 223 Intermediate Statistics
  • Introductory Statistics Requirement (MTH 123 or MTH 206)
  • Ethics Requirement (BUS 315 or BUS 335V)


Elective Options 

  • BUS 122 Quantitative Methods for Business
  • CSC 220 Programming and Problem Solving II
  • COM 256 Information Design
  • CSC 310 Database Theory and Implementation
  • CSC 340 Machine Learning and Neural Network Processing
  • CSC 480 Artificial Intelligence
  • DSC 330 Data Acquisition and Analysis
  • ENV 280 Geographical Information Systems 
  • FIN 330 Financial Modeling
  • MTH 223 Intermediate Statistics
  • POL 351 Quantitative Political Analysis
  • PSY 222 Research Methods in the Psychological Sciences
  • SOC 365 Research Methods II
  • BUS 275 Introduction to Management Information Systems
  • BUS 496 Applied Strategy