data science degree students in classroom

Data Science Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

The field of data science is evolving into one of the fastest-growing fields in the world.

The Data Science degree prepares you to impact industries, government, health care, and academia. You'll be in high demand with your expertise to find meaningful data and drive positive business decisions.

Program type:
Major
Format:
On Campus or Online
Est. time to complete:
4-5 years
Credit hours:
124

Why earn a data science degree?

Application Deadlines
Fall:
Aug. 15
Spring:
Dec. 15
Summer:
May 1

There is significant and growing demand for data scientists in enterprises of all shapes and sizes. The supply of professionals who can work effectively with data at scale is limited. This demand is reflected in rapidly rising salaries for data engineers, data scientists, statisticians, and data analysts.

With UND's undergraduate data science degree, you'll benefit from a program that:

  • Marries computer science, data science and business analytics for well-rounded expertise.
  • Offers a strong curriculum foundation of programming, as well as courses focused on databases, cloud computing, cybersecurity and high-performance computing.
  • Provides opportunities to gain expertise with business analytics for the tools you need to interpret and transform data into actionable insights.

Learn at a Data Science Degree Hub

Agriculture, UAS, energy, utility, construction and transportation sectors all use big data. It’s critical to enhance acquisition, storage, communication and security, as well as to convert the data to usable information. As a big data hub, UND has a laser-focused team working to solve industrial data challenges.

Hands on Data Science Degree

Your talent will be developed throughout your time at UND and culminate in your senior year, when you take part in a two semester senior design sequence. During this time you'll have the opportunity to design, present and test a data design or research plan. These projects are supported by industry partners and business leaders to help fill real-world needs, and give you the opportunity to develop practical experience before entering the workforce.

The skills you develop in our Data Science program will be applicable in any field. Regardless if you want to work within music, business, healthcare, or any other field your passionate for, you'll be able to use data science to help create success. All while having highly desirable skills, that translate into high paying careers, and a strong return on investment for your education.

Data Science Degree Online or On-Campus

  • Be part of a highly-skilled workforce that can support the expansion of data science-related industries.

  • Earn credit while working in the industry with cooperative education and seminars, participate in research projects and work on assignments for outside organizations and corporations while in school.

  • Gain the technical skills to successfully work with large data sets. Also succeed in a variety of industries and professional settings with your the strong liberal arts foundation.

  • Benefit from a program housed within the College of Engineering & Mines. We're one of the most well-respected engineering schools in the upper Midwest. 

  • Don’t overlook accreditation. This assures that a school meets an acceptable level of quality. UND programs are fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

  • Let our team of academic advisors help you plan your major. You'll also have access to personalized Degree Map software to keep you on track to graduate in four years.

What can you do with a data science degree?

131k

Median salary for computer and information research scientists, 2021

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

21%

Anticipated job growth through 2031

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Graduates of our new data science major have an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a rapidly growing field of computer science. Analyst estimate that the U.S. alone faces a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with analytical expertise with data.

Jobs you can expect to qualify for with a data science degree include:

  • Business Intelligence (BI) Developer: Develop and maintain BI interfaces and work in BI tools.
  • Data Analyst: Gather, visualize, transform, and manipulate data.
  • Data Architect: Lay out the framework for how the data will be collected, used, modeled, retrieved, and secured.
  • Data Engineer: Design, build, and maintain data infrastructure.
  • Data Scientist: Use mathematical, statistical, and programming skills to gain insights from data. Research and develop new approaches, as well as manage projects.
  • Database Administrator: Monitor database systems to ensure they function properly, create backups and recoveries, and grant permissions to databases.
  • Machine Learning Engineer: Design, build, and maintain artificial intelligence (AI) software and algorithms.
  • Machine Learning Scientist: Research new data manipulating approaches and design new algorithms.

Data Science Degree Graduates

UND data science degree holders can expect a range of opportunities in careers with many kinds of institutions and in many different industries:

  • Government
  • Businesses
  • Financial institutions
  • Healthcare
  • Scientific research facilities
  • Colleges and universities

Data Science Degree Courses

CSCI 364. Concurrent and Distributed Programming. 3 Credits.

This course focuses on concurrent object oriented programming and modern distributed/parallel programming models (such as OpenMP, CUDA, OpenCL and Actors). Students will utilize various high performance distributed computing technology. Topics covered will include shared and distributed memory systems, sockets, threads, and message passing. Prerequisites: CSCI 242 and CSCI 266, each with a grade of C or better. S.

CSCI 384. Artificial Intelligence. 3 Credits.

A study of algorithms and application of AI. The topics include agent theory, problem-solving with the search, constraint satisfaction problem, game, knowledge-based system, reasoning and machine learning which are widely applicable to design of an intelligent system, data science and mining, information retrieval, pathfinding and classification, etc. Prerequisite: CSCI 242. S.

CSCI 389. Computer and Network Security. 3 Credits.

This course introduces techniques for achieving security in multi-user standalone computer systems and distributed computer systems. Coverage includes host-based security topics (cryptography, intrusion detection, secure operating systems), network-based security topics (authentication and identification schemes, denial-of-service attacks, worms, firewalls), risk assessment and security policies. Prerequisite: CSCI 161. S.

CSCI 443. Introduction to Machine Learning. 3 Credits.

An introduction to the theory and implementation of fundamental machine learning algorithms. Topics include representation, generalization, model selection, linear/additive models, support vector machines, learning problems, over-fitting, clustering, classification, neural networks, and regression. Prerequisite: CSCI 384 with a grade of C or above. F.

CSCI 455. Database Management Systems. 3 Credits.

Database concepts, database design (ER, UML), database programming languages (SQL), NoSQL Database, Database Concurrency and recovery techniques, and Database security. Prerequisite: CSCI 242 with a grade of C or better. S, even years.

CSCI 456. Introduction to Data Mining. 3 Credits.

Data Mining is the collection of methods used to identify patterns in data. This course is comprised of a mix of theoretical underpinnings and practical applications based on the concepts of: data pre-processing, data attributes, classification, clustering, association, anomaly detection, dimensionality reduction, and mining of networks. Prerequisites: CSCI 384 with a grade of C or above and MATH 422. F.

UND Data Science BS

Best Online Data Science Degree

Our data science program consistently ranks among the best for educational quality, affordability, and career outcomes.

top-25-online-bachelor’s-in-data-science-2022
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