NYU’s Data Science initiative pushes North East to forefront

NYU has announced a university wide Data Science initiative and the creation of the Center for Data Science (CDS). Columbia University got a head start with The Institute for Data Science and Engineering (IDSE), but NYU is offering a MS degree with plans to offer a PhD, something Columbia’s IDSE is not doing at this time.

This news comes on the heels of Massachusetts’ efforts to make Boston a big data capital.   Massachusetts has long been a leading center for academic research in data mining and big data through MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

There are many institutions across the US that have added Data Science degrees to existing programs. However, NYU is one of the first schools to create a center with the purpose of offering a degree, as opposed to only conducting research, in this field.

Computational Social Science at Columbia University

This looks like a really interesting class that covers a lot of useful tools for data science. The course blog has postings for each lecture and slides.