NSF Data Science Program at CSUN

NSF Data Science Program is located at California State University Northridge (CSUN) and provides interdisciplinary training in Data Science (DS) that encompasses course work and research projects linked to emerging efforts in the public and private sectors with the overall goal of defining the needs of tomorrow’s workforce and develop educational strategies to meet those needs. The program coursework is concerned with applications of Data Science. It includes courses on statistical methods of learning, methods for pattern recognition and classification, neural networks, methods of data collection, processing, and feature engineering. Program's courses also include programming in Python, R, and SQL, as well as use of various platforms and packages for data collection, analysis and deployment. Program courses are usually given in summer during the Data Science Bootcamp. Student participants of the program solidify their training by working in groups for a duration of at least one semester with a faculty adviser and, in some cases, with a business/industrial partner on a project involving hands on experience with Data Science. Student projects are concerned with studies of City of Los Angeles data, housing market and mortgage fraud data, corporate customer data, geological data and educational data. The project is looking forward to establishing partnerships with local businesses, industries, and state and federal agencies to provide services in workforce development and/or research consulting in the field of data science. We are seeking to create workplace learning experiences for CSUN students and to streamline their college to employment trajectories. We are aiming to addressing modern trends in the job market by preparing qualifying candidates.