Data Science: Summer of a Lifetime
Want a preview of one of today’s most sought-after college majors — from the inside?
Noble Network’s Summer of a Lifetime is collaborating with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) to offer a week-long summer enrichment program exclusively for rising Noble juniors and seniors. You’ll learn about a new major being offered through UIC’s computer science department: data science.
What is a data scientist? Heading link
Think of someone who can take vast amounts of information and make it useful.
That can mean analyzing the data to find out what it means, or it can mean packaging the data in a way that anyone — even non-experts — can make sense of it.
UIC has developed a program to train the next generation of data scientists. The university’s new data science major can teach you:
- The techniques needed to collect, process, and analyze huge amounts of information
- How to use statistics
- How data influences the business world, from corporations to government agencies
- How to explain what you find in data to all audiences (including your supervisors!)
- Next steps to applying to college to pursue a degree in data science
Data science skills are also flexible, meaning that you can apply them to any field or industry that interests you. What’s your passion? Healthcare, the music industry, urban planning, retail, marketing, manufacturing, transportation, communication, education, social media, finance, social justice? There’s almost always an angle for someone who knows how to work magic with data.
It also pays well. The median salary for a data scientist in Chicago is more than $112,000, according to Built in Chicago.
How to participate Heading link
If you are a rising Noble junior or senior and are interested in UIC’s Summer of a Lifetime data science program, fill out an application form with your teachers. We especially welcome female and nonbinary students and Black and Latino/a/x students because UIC is committed to creating opportunities for underrepresented groups in the tech world.
This virtual weeklong Summer of a Lifetime data science program will take place Monday, June 21 through Friday, June 25. Each six-hour day will include a one-hour lunch break. During the sessions, you will explore the answers to the following questions:
- Data science: What is the field, and what are its applications?
- Programming: How do I use programming tools to get user input, process data, and provide meaningful output?
- Probability: How do data scientists use this tool to predict future events?
- Statistics: How does the frequency of past events inform data scientists?
- Careers: What do data science jobs look like? What do industry professionals advise you to do if you’re interested in this field?
The program will be led by UIC Clinical Assistant Professors Gonzalo Bello and Jennifer Pajda-De La O.
Meet a data science student! Heading link
UIC student Kaylynn Arrington recently changed her major to data science with a concentration in computer science. She hopes to pursue a career in cybersecurity.
“I knew I wanted to go into computer science,” she said. “I like technology and math and learned it was something I could do.”
“I know I want to be in this field because I enjoy using an analytical approach to solving things.”
UIC is proud to join the Noble Network Summer of a Lifetime program to empower their next class of graduates.