Data Science major coming in Fall’22

UC Davis will debut its new interdisciplinary data science major in fall 2022, providing a career pathway for undergraduates who plan to become leaders in this cutting-edge field. This is a collaborative effort between the College of Letters and Science and the College of Engineering. The data science major will prepare students to collect, manage and analyze data, to consider the ethical and societal impacts of data science, and to communicate their discoveries effectively.

The program requires both theoretical and applied course work to underscore the strong interdependence of technical foundations in computer science, engineering, mathematics and statistics, and their applications to any field of inquiry relying on quantitative data analysis. 

A glance at the required courses are below.

Preparatory Subject Matter (39 units)

• MAT 21A Calculus    
• MAT 21B Calculus    
• MAT 21C Calculus    
• MAT 22A Linear Algebra    
• ECS 17 Data, Logic, and Computing    
• ECS 32A Introduction to Programming    
• ECS 32B Introduction to Data Structures    
• STA 35A Statistical Data Science I    
• STA 35B Statistical Data Science II    
• STA 35C Statistical Data Science III    

Depth Subject Matter (52 units)

• ECS 116 Databases for Non-Majors    
• ECS  117 Introduction to Algorithms for Data Science (Pending Approval)*    
• ECS  119 Data Processing Pipelines for Data Science (Pending Approval)*    
• ECS 130 Scientific Computation OR MAT 167 Applied Linear Algebra    
• MAT 135A Probability OR STA 131A Introduction to Probability Theory    
• MAT 168 Optimization    
• STA  108 Linear Regression    
• STA  141A Fundamentals of Statistical Data Science    
• STS  101 Data & Society    

Choose One: 

• ECS  111 Machine Learning for Non-Majors (Pending Approval)*    
• MAT 170 Mathematics for Data Analytics & Decision Making    
• STA 142A Introduction to Statistical Learning    

Three elective courses in a related discipline.     

Three upper division courses approved by major advisor; they should be in statistics, mathematics, computer science or cover quantitative aspects of a substantive discipline. 

Total Units: 91

Click here to find out more information on the Data Science major!

Other academic offerings in the planning stages include:

• Graduate group in data science
• The installment of several new courses related to data science for undergraduate and for graduate students
• The creation of a data science based summer research program for graduate and undergraduate students interested in exploring new data-driven approaches to interdisciplinary challenges

The progress of these offerings will be updated on this website accordingly.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.