Newsletter

Our connect section includes important news and updates for the advising community and helps us showcase the exceptional work of our many talented advisors.

As the fall semester gets underway, we’d like to share some timely information with you about fall offerings from the campus’ Data Science education program and how they could benefit your students.

What is the Data Science education program?Berkeley’s Data Science education program offers an interdisciplinary curriculum that provides a foundation for undergraduates in all fields and intended majors to engage capably and critically with data. No matter their major or background, all students today have a critical need to navigate a data-rich world.

A foundational course in Data ScienceThe program starts at the introductory level, with a pathbreaking four-unit foundational course, Foundations of Data Science, or Data 8, that teaches core computational and statistics concepts while enabling students to work hands-on with real data.

  • Accessible to students of any intended major

  • Ideal for freshmen and sophomores; also now open to others

  • No prior experience with computer science or statistics is expected

  • Appropriate for science and engineering students preparing to pursue more advanced courses, as well as social science and humanities students

  • Satisfies requirements, including the L&S Quantitative Reasoning requirement and the statistics requirement in most majors requiring statistics (See full list at data.berkeley.edu/requirements)

  • Taught this fall by Distinguished Teaching Award recipientProfessor Ani Adhikari of the Statistics department, and in the spring by Professor John DeNero of Computer Science.

  • Cross-listed as CS C8, INFO C8, and STAT C8 with lecture and (two-hour) lab section (students must enroll in both)

  • 155 seats (out of 500) still available, as of Aug. 8

Tying data science to students’ interestsConnector courses enable students to apply core skills from the foundational course to explore real-world issues that relate to students’ areas of interest.

Advanced courses Faculty are currently developing upper division courses, including Data Science 100, which is scheduled to be offered this spring. Advanced and mid-level courses are offered as part of existing programs. Here are just a few examples offered this fall:

What students are saying about Foundations of Data Science:

  • “One of the things I most enjoy about data science is the diversity-- my classmates range from English majors to bio majors to computer science majors -- all looking at data from our different perspectives.”

  • “This class puts theory into practice. I was able to use data to tell powerful visual stories about the struggles I experienced growing up in southeast LA.”

  • “Out of all the classes I’ve taken,this class gave me the most practical knowledge. I’m applying it in my internship at Google already.”

Please check out our website at data.berkeley.edu, and email me at mhurley@berkeley.edu if you have any questions. Please feel free to forward this information to advisors and students who may be interested.

Budget Implementation Framework Pathways Project

Berkeley advisors across 13 undergraduate programs have recently published on their departmental websites 3-, 3.5- and 4-year degree pathways for their respective majors. Advisors are encouraged to direct interested students with significant pre-UC credits to relevant departmental advisors as early as possible.

The pathways are posted here:

major URL
Integrative Biology https://ib.berkeley.edu/undergrad/major/freshman.php
Business Administration http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/pread.html
English http://english.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/undergraduate_links
Environmental Economics and Policy https://nature.berkeley.edu/advising/majors/environmental-economics-and-policy
Economics https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/undergrad/prospective/freshmen
Political Science http://polisci.berkeley.edu/undergraduate-program/requirements-major
Sociology http://sociology.berkeley.edu/plan-study
Media Studies http://mediastudies.ugis.berkeley.edu/requirements
Political Economy http://iastp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/misc_files/UCB_Pathways_Political%20Economy-ES%2011.16.15.pdf
Psychology http://psychology.berkeley.edu/students/undergraduate-program/program-planning
Computer Science http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/csugrad/?_ga=1.150195189.294777641.1456538360v
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/eecs/degree-reqs/study-plan
History http://history.berkeley.edu/content/sample-program-plans

SIS Training Updates

Advisor Training on SIS is Underway

The Student Information Systems (SIS) Training team is offering interactive, recorded webinars supported by other training material over the next several weeks. Upcoming webinars include:
Visit the advising training website for more information and to sign up for the webinars.

At any time, feel free to be in touch at sis-training@berkeley.edu, or with Lisa Feldman at lfeldman@berkeley.edu