What is a data scientist and how does a student with ambition become one? That was the question posed by the Institute’s director, Dr. Michael Rappa, speaking today at the University of South Florida. Dr. Rappa was the invited guest speaker at the Interdisciplinary Data Sciences Consortium (IDSC) Colloquium jointly sponsored by IDSC and the USF Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Dr. Rappa spoke about his experience over the past decade with the rise of the data scientist as a major new professional occupation. He discussed the skills needed to practice data science in industry and government, and how these skills can be acquired—in formal academic programs and informal individualized educational pathways.
IDSC is a data sciences research group with expertise in a wide range of quantitative methods and housed in various departments at USF. Members of this consortium include experts in statistics, engineering, probability, mathematics, biostatistics, health sciences, physiology, and business. The colloquium was organized by Dr. Chris Tsokos and Dr. Kandethody Ramachandran.