Data Science is the study of methods to obtain insight from available data in order to understand, predict, and improve business strategy, products and services, marketing campaigns, medicine, public health and safety, and many other pursuits. Such methods involve elements of both statistics and computer science, with a focus on three foundational components: (i) database management, (ii) statistics and machine learning, and (iii) distributed and parallel systems.
The Data Science plan is guided by a joint curriculum committee. This committee is chaired by a director of data science, normally a faculty member chosen from either academic unit with the agreement of both. Along with the director, the committee includes four Faculty of Mathematics representatives, two appointed by each unit. In addition, the associate chair of undergraduate studies for Statistics and Actuarial Science and the director of undergraduate studies for Computer Science serve ex officio on the committee. Curriculum changes introduced by the committee must receive approval from both units before being approved by the Faculty of Mathematics. In addition to chairing the curriculum committee, the director has responsibility for promoting the plan, both internally and externally, and for overall co-ordination.
The Faculty of Mathematics offers two Honours degrees in Data Science: a Bachelor of Mathematics (BMath - Data Science) and a Bachelor of Computer Science (BCS - Data Science). The Data Science plans are offered jointly by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science and by the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. Students in the two plans graduate with a background in both computer science and statistics, taking a combination of required and elective courses that together provide a solid foundation in this emerging area.
This plan has the same requirements as the BCS with the following additional requirements:
One of
MATH 235 Linear Algebra 2 for Honours Mathematics
MATH 245 Linear Algebra 2 (Advanced Level)
One of
MATH 237 Calculus 3 for Honours Mathematics
MATH 247 Calculus 3 (Advanced Level)
All of
CS 348 Introduction to Database Management
CS 451 Data-Intensive Distributed Computing
STAT 330 Mathematical Statistics
STAT 331 Applied Linear Models
STAT 341 Computational Statistics and Data Analysis
One of
CS 480 Introduction to Machine Learning
CS 485 Statistical and Computational Foundations of Machine Learning
CS 486 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
One additional course from the following list
CS 448 Database Systems Implementation
CS 454 Distributed Systems
CS 480 Introduction to Machine Learning
CS 485 Statistical and Computational Foundations of Machine Learning
CS 486 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Two of
STAT 431 Generalized Linear Models and their Applications
STAT 440 Computational Inference
STAT 441 Statistical Learning - Classification
STAT 442 Data Visualization
STAT 443 Forecasting
STAT 444 Statistical Learning - Advanced Regression
Note
Students who take STAT 440 cannot also count this course toward the “One additional course chosen from” requirement for the Bachelor of Computer Science.