Mount Holyoke College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts, has announced that it is now offering a new concentration in data science. The concentration will be one of nine in the college’s Nexus Program which is designed to incorporate career goals with a liberal arts education.
Data science involves the extraction of meaningful knowledge from information by using mathematics, statistics, and computer science. In a world of where information is plentiful researchers need increasingly sophisticated tools to acquire, manage, process, and analyze the data.
Students in the new concentration will have to take four advanced courses including one in statistics and one in computer science. Women students will also have to complete an internship that gives them direct practical experience, followed by a class that reflects on the internship.
Martha F. Hoopes, associate professor of biological sciences who will co-direct the data science concentration, states that “in 20 years, data science will be standard on every campus, and establishing this Nexus program is putting Mount Holyoke on the cutting edge right now. By creating a data science Nexus, we create conversations across campus for our faculty as well as for our students. This addition invigorates our research and that sense of life in classrooms and on campus.”
Dr. Hoopes joined the faculty at Mount Holyoke College in 2004. She is a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she double majored in English and physics. She holds a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California, Davis.