SOUTH HADLEY — It speaks to the breadth of the data science field that the two Mount Holyoke professors who pushed to strengthen the college’s offerings in the subject teach psychology and biology.
Amber Douglas, associate professor in psychology and education, and Martha Hoopes, associate professor of biology, have worked to establish a special minor program in data science called a “nexus,” and hope soon to have a major in data science.
“One of the things Amber and I have been talking about the whole time we’ve been talking about data science is embedding it in a liberal arts environment,” Hoopes said. “It makes so much sense taking these techniques and applying them to all fields and posing interesting questions.”
Mount Holyoke College is among the growing number of colleges and universities working to establish data science programs, responding to an ever-increasing demand for qualified data scientists in a range of industries. The University of Massachusetts Amherst in April 2015 launched its center for data science.
But having a concentration in data science is special for a small liberal arts school. Douglas said making these courses available can attract students who might not think of themselves as data scientists, but are interested in learning about the field.
“There are benefits for faculty and students – the faculty who are engaging in different types of research and students who are hungry for these options in courses,” she said.
Next fall, data science will join other nexus concentrations that already exist at Mount Holyoke, including in engineering, education and policy, global business and journalism.
The program follows a $2 million 2015 grant from the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. to both Smith and Mount Holyoke colleges, providing money to hire faculty to teach data science-related courses.
Deepshikha Adhikari, a Mount Holyoke sophomore studying data science, experienced sexism as a high school student in India when she tried to excel in her studies.
Adhikari said she enrolled at Mount Holyoke to escape that negative bias as well as to get a good education.
“I wanted to be in a place where gender was not an issue,” she said. “Back home… teachers would tell you about how important it is to look good and you would never be encouraged to go beyond that.”
Adhikari enrolled in law school for 2 ½ years before realizing that she wanted to pursue a math degree. “I’m into assignments that play with numbers and that’s how I realized that this is my field,” she said.
Adhikari is on track with statistics classes and is taking a machine-learning computer science class to fulfill requirements for the Mount Holyoke nexus in data science.
Over the summer, she will work for MasterCard as a system analyst intern. Mount Holyoke works to secure internships for all its students through the Lynk program, established under President Lynn Pasquerella, who will leave the college in June.
“I hope I get to make relationships and learn about what my next step should be,” Adhikarisaid.
She added that the nexus in data science will allow students interested in computer science to pursue a field other than software development.
To top it off, data scientists are in high demand, Adhikari said.
“It is a new field and everyone is testing the water,” she said.
Douglas and Hoopes said they are both surprised that the program has taken off so rapidly. About 30 students showed up at a recent pizza night to gauge interest, with more saying they were interested but could not attend.
“College students now have grown up in a different world,” Hoopes said. “They learn how to use data and what this data might mean and it totally makes sense to them.”
She and Douglas are not standing still with the progress establishing the data science nexus program. The pair are bringing a proposal for a major in data science before the faculty.
If the vote goes well, it may be in place by fall 2017, Douglas said.
Dave Eisenstadter can be reached at deisen@gazettenet.com.