{"id":368999,"date":"2017-03-09T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?p=368999"},"modified":"2017-05-17T15:07:21","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T22:07:21","slug":"grassroots-data-science-education-uc-berkeley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/grassroots-data-science-education-uc-berkeley\/","title":{"rendered":"A new understanding of the world through grassroots Data Science education at UC Berkeley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/people\/vanim\/\" target=\"_blank\">Vani Mandava<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Director, Data Science, Microsoft Research<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_369647\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-369647\" class=\"wp-image-369647 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BerkeleyDataScience-blog3-1024x450.png\" alt=\"Data Science education at UC Berkeley\" width=\"1024\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BerkeleyDataScience-blog3-1024x450.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BerkeleyDataScience-blog3-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BerkeleyDataScience-blog3-768x338.png 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BerkeleyDataScience-blog3.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-369647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students at UC Berkeley Foundations of Data Science Program<\/p><\/div>\n<p>While some may regard data science as an easy passport to a job for the tech savvy, Luis Macias has different ideas. The fourth-year undergraduate student, who is majoring in American Studies at <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/www.berkeley.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">University of California, Berkeley<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> (UC Berkeley), wants to turn the hype of data science into hope for low-income communities like the one he grew up in.<\/p>\n<p>Luis was among the first students to take UC Berkeley\u2019s innovative <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/data8.org\" target=\"_blank\">Foundations of Data Science<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, an introductory data science course designed for freshman and sophomore students of all majors. The course is a key component of a multi-year university effort to forge a broader, more diverse, and inclusive scope for the emerging discipline of data science.<\/p>\n<p>Recalling an assignment to gauge how water consumption data might relate to socioeconomic conditions, Luis explained how having the power to get and analyze data about his own ZIP Code ignited an understanding that data science can yield new insights capable of solving some of society\u2019s most complex problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe income level was around $25K, a number that was powerful for me in particular, because I think it explained a lot of the social issues and problems my community had,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Data Science in Education\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/3HI4O1mjqHg?feature=oembed&rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Berkeley\u2019s <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/data.berkeley.edu\" target=\"_blank\">Data Science Education Program<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> aims to make data science an integral feature of a liberal education and a core interdisciplinary capacity available to all Berkeley undergraduates. This is a bold experiment that will equip thousands of Berkeley students across campus with a fundamental education in data-driven thinking empowered by advanced statistical and computational techniques.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team of educators see their role as making it possible for students to bring to bear data science in all the ways they wish to use it in the world,\u201d notes History professor Cathryn Carson. Carson is one of the faculty members leading the effort to build a diverse curriculum that includes advanced classes as well as connector courses that provide a bridge between familiar academic subjects and newly available data science techniques. \u201cThe energy and enthusiasm of students in the courses clearly demonstrate that the initiative will put data science to work in a breadth of domains that serve society, and UC Berkeley will play a particularly powerful role as a public university in this new data rich era.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year, the program is enabling more than a thousand students across 56 different undergraduate majors to learn critical computational and analytical skills demanded by the projected half million jobs in data science by 2018. That\u2019s a lot of potentially unfilled jobs, an opportunity highlighted in numerous media accounts over the past couple of years.\u00a0 In 2015, Forbes wrote about the <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/gilpress\/2015\/04\/30\/the-supply-and-demand-of-data-scientists-what-the-surveys-say\/#39dd29ee205e\" target=\"_blank\">urgent need<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> for qualified data science workers who bring different skills, expertise, and experiences to the discipline. Some of them will no doubt emerge from Berkeley&#8217;s unique program of connector courses that represent students from a diverse range of skills and disciplines.<\/p>\n<p>To succeed, the program had to be accessible to students beyond the realm of computer science. One way the program does this is through a flexible and scalable technology infrastructure that enables students to quickly set up labs for hands-on practice\u2014they don\u2019t have to spend time installing programs or learning nuances of complicated applications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy hosting it in Azure, we can control the environment,\u201d said Ryan Lovett, Systems Manager for the Department of Statistics at UC Berkeley. \u201cStudents just log in and they&#8217;re ready to go.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>David Culler, professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley, believes the program can extend computational thinking to benefit more disciplines. He anticipates the program will equip students with the ability to extract their own insights from the world\u2019s information and build tools that benefit people in society. He likens the ability to understand an increasingly complex world to a new form of perception \u2014 combining mathematical thinking and the arts with computational tools for new forms of expression.<\/p>\n<p>Such data science projects include classic and new problems like music genre classification, text analysis of famous literary works, identifying insights from bike sharing data in San Francisco, or analyzing jury selection in Alameda County.<\/p>\n<p>Berkeley prides itself as a place where the world\u2019s brightest minds explore, ask questions and improve the world. Thanks to the Data Science Education Program, thousands of Berkeley students are better critical thinkers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note:<\/em> Microsoft partners closely with UC Berkeley in support of its Data Science Education Program. Since 2015, Microsoft Research, through its <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/www.azure4research.com\" target=\"_blank\">Azure for Research<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> program provided $235K in Azure credits to enable the Foundations of Data Science course along with $260K in research credits and $5K in training credits. Microsoft also provided $75K in unrestricted gift funding towards UC Berkeley\u2019s Data Program.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Learn more<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/data.berkeley.edu\/\">UC Berkeley Data Science Education Program<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/data.berkeley.edu\/foundations-data-science\">Foundations of Data Science<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/gilpress\/2015\/04\/30\/the-supply-and-demand-of-data-scientists-what-the-surveys-say\/\">The supply and demand of data scientists: What the surveys say<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/academic-program\/data-science-at-microsoft-research\/\">Data Science at Microsoft<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/azure4research.com\/\">Microsoft Azure for Research<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/develop\/python\/\">Microsoft Azure: Python Developer Center<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/notebooks.azure.com\/\">Microsoft Azure Notebooks<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Vani Mandava, Director, Data Science, Microsoft Research While some may regard data science as an easy passport to a job for the tech savvy, Luis Macias has different ideas. The fourth-year undergraduate student, who is majoring in American Studies at University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), wants to turn the hype of data science [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39507,"featured_media":378956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[205399,197938,194453],"tags":[233303,233306,187057,196385,197538],"research-area":[13563],"msr-region":[],"msr-event-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-promo-type":[],"msr-podcast-series":[],"class_list":["post-368999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azure","category-case-studies","category-data-science","tag-data-science-education","tag-data-scientists","tag-data-science","tag-microsoft-azure-for-research","tag-uc-berkeley","msr-research-area-data-platform-analytics","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_event_details":{"start":"","end":"","location":""},"podcast_url":"","podcast_episode":"","msr_research_lab":[],"msr_impact_theme":[],"related-publications":[],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[],"related-academic-programs":[204065,204068],"related-groups":[],"related-projects":[],"related-events":[],"related-researchers":[],"msr_type":"Post","featured_image_thumbnail":"<img width=\"655\" height=\"280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BerkeleyDataScience-655x280_.jpg\" class=\"img-object-cover\" alt=\"Data Science education at UC Berkeley\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BerkeleyDataScience-655x280_.jpg 655w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BerkeleyDataScience-655x280_-300x128.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 655px) 100vw, 655px\" \/>","byline":"","formattedDate":"March 9, 2017","formattedExcerpt":"By Vani Mandava, Director, Data Science, Microsoft Research While some may regard data science as an easy passport to a job for the tech savvy, Luis Macias has different ideas. The fourth-year undergraduate student, who is majoring in American Studies at University of California, Berkeley&hellip;","locale":{"slug":"en_us","name":"English","native":"","english":"English"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368999"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369953,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368999\/revisions\/369953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"msr-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-region?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"msr-event-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event-type?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"msr-promo-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-promo-type?post=368999"},{"taxonomy":"msr-podcast-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-podcast-series?post=368999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}