Computational and Data Sciences — A Letter from the Chair

In the academic year 2019/2020, the CDS department begins its fifth year of operation.  The growth over the past five years has doubled the expected pace.  From Spring 2019 to Fall 2019, the number of CDS majors increased by 61%!  Certainly, we are looking forward to seeing the first cohorts of CDS majors walk across the graduation stages in the upcoming semesters. 

CDS continues to expand at a blistering pace, maintaining its noted place as the fastest growing department in the College of Science for the third straight year.  All undergraduate offerings are expanding in capacity either through larger class sizes or more sections.  We are also offering new courses.  We now offer CDS 403 (Machine Learning Applications in Science) and CDS 468 (Image Operators).  Several new classes are in the planning stages. 

The most exciting aspect of CDS is the addition of five new faculty members.  These are (listed alphabetically by first name): 

• Dr. Dominic White: computational biology and paleontology 
• Dr. Hamdi Kavak: modelling, simulation, cybersecurity, and urban systems 
• Dr. Michael Eagle: machine learning, data analysis 
• Dr. Olga Gkountouna: data privacy, urban networks, spatio-temporal data, time series analysis. 
• Dr. Ron Mahabir: Image analysis, machine learning, text mining, open data.

We will be adding new faculty in the upcoming year as well. 

The fields of computational science, computational social science, and data science are rapidly expanding, and jobs are plentiful.  Many of our seniors have jobs waiting for them several months before they graduate.   

This department is still one of the few in the nation that offers degrees at all levels.  

• Minor (Computational and Data Science) 
• Bachelor’s (Computational and Data Science) 
• Graduate certificate (Data Science) 
• Graduate certificate (Computational Social Science) 
• Master’s (Computational Science) 
• Accelerated Masters 
• PhD (Computational Sciences & Informatics) 
• PhD (Computational Social Science) 

CDS is heavily immersed in these exciting fields.  We extend the invitation for you to come join us! 

Jason M. Kinser
Chair, CDS