Online Program

Saturday, February 23
PS3 Poster Session 3 & Continental Breakfast Sat, Feb 23, 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Napoleon Ballroom

Modifying the Undergraduate Statistics Curriculum to Properly Train Future Data Scientists (302607)

Brant Deppa, Winona State University 
Tisha Hooks, Winona State University 
April Kerby, Winona State University 
*Christopher Malone, Winona State University 

Keywords: data scientists, data analytics, curriculum

Does the undergraduate statistics curriculum properly prepare students for a future as a data scientist? This question is becoming increasingly important as data scientists or analysts have witnessed a substantial increase in the expectation that data, which is becoming easier and easier to collect, be used to drive decisions within their organizations. The authors have conducted a thorough review of the current statistics curriculum at several academic institutions in an effort to identify the deficiencies in how data scientists are currently trained. In addition, information was recently gathered from a total of 19 representatives from the healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and product distribution sectors of industry through on-site interviews. This poster will identify shortcomings in the existing statistics curriculum and provide specific suggestions for making improvements to the training of future data scientists.