St. Benedict University and St. John’s University introduced data science as a new major this fall. The new major is the result of revamping and refocusing the existing Numerical Computing major.

According to the department’s website, the field is “an interdisciplinary study that uses computer science, mathematics, and statistics to extract knowledge and insights from large, unstructured data and apply those insights to a wide range of disciplines. areas”.

The co-chairs of the new program, Dr. Imad Rahal and Dr. Bob Hesse, said the new major has been in the works for the past two to three years, with informal discussions prior to that.

The department’s webpage states that it is designed for students “interested in learning to apply computational and statistical tools to modeling and simulation, as well as discovering knowledge from data across many disciplines.” I’m here. The university promises that students who complete their majors can find careers in business, industry, research, or education.

Aside from the name change, the Data Science major is different from the Numerical Computing major.