Data Science

Big decisions count on you.

What is Data Science? Every four seconds, enough data is generated to fill the entire print collection of the Library of Congress. Making sense of that data is the job of a data scientist.

Using a combination of mathematics, computer science, and trend-spotting, data scientists unearth meaningful insights from enormous piles of unstructured information. Their analysis can solve problems, drive better decision-making, and enhance performance. For these reasons, data scientists are employed in nearly every industry and sector, from politics, entertainment, and sports to medicine, technology, and physics—and everything in between.

With a degree in Data Science, you could be in high demand, as the U.S. is facing a large shortage of professionals in the field. Someone could be counting on you for your deep analytical skills.

Data science finds the answers to such questions as:

  • Which training methods are most effective for athletes?
  • What is the impact of vaccination on the spread of influenza?
  • Which genes are linked to disease?
  • How does the effectiveness of an advertising campaign vary according to location?
  • Who is the most likely author of an anonymously-written letter?
  • How can we predict the optimal teaching style for an individual student?
  • How can we map the spread of memes?
  • Which movie should Netflix suggest next for me?
  • ranked as a national university by u.s. news and world report
  • 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio
  • colleges of distinction 2025-2026

Advantages

  • Provides expertise in the core areas of computer science, mathematics, and statistics
  • Ongoing faculty research opportunities
  • Departmental employment opportunities, including research assistantships and MathLab tutoring
  • Personal attention, thanks to a low student-to-faculty ratio
  • Hands-on experiences with real-world applications
  • Internship opportunities to gain invaluable on-the-job experience and networking

Potential Careers

  • Manage supply chains and market products for manufacturers, retailers, and distribution companies
  • Improve patient outcomes and control costs for hospitals and other health care providers
  • Create software and information technology for digital health companies
  • Analyze critical trial data for pharmaceutical, medical device, or agricultural chemical companies
  • Manage big data applications for software companies

Curriculum

Here are classes you might take your freshman/sophomore year:

  • Intro to Object Oriented Programming
  • Calculus Sequence
  • Programming (R, Python, and C)
  • Probability & Statistics

 

Here are some classes you might take later:

  • Data Structures and Algorithms
  • Database Systems
  • Statistical Learning
  • Bayesian Analysis and Statistical Decision Making
  • Capstone Research in Data Science
  • Big Data Mining

Curriculum Guides

These curriculum guides outline the classes you'll need to take as a Data Science major. The general education curriculum guide lists your class options and requirements to fulfill UIndy's general education requirements, while the Data Science curriculum guide lists the classes needed to major in Data Science. You'll need to look at both guides to get a complete picture of what classes you'll take at UIndy.