Data Science Experiences for Undergraduates

With increasing demand for data science and analytics skills, proper data generation, collection, storage and analysis are expected, yet mostly untaught, skills in the undergraduate experience. One bottleneck tends to be the handling and interpretation of the data created and gathered. Departments are creating new degree programs, concentrations and courses to help address this need. In this paper, we describe the use of existing technologies for introducing undergraduate students to the principles of data science. We share preliminary observations of delivering instruction as a course-based project and research-based experience. We also discuss the development of a data science learning platform to aid instruction.