First-of-its-kind
week of preparation for graduate students entering new multidisciplinary
program
SAN FRANCISCO (August 1,
2012) – Today the University of San Francisco kicks off the first of three
academic boot camps for the inaugural cohort of students pursuing its new
Master of Science degree in Analytics (MSAN). Offered jointly by the College of
Arts and Sciences and the School of Management, USF’s new MSAN program focuses
on integrating computer science, statistics, and business economics to provide
a mastery of the analytics skills necessary to drive strategic business
decision-making. Held at USF’s Presidio campus, the three week-long intensive
academic boot camps include lecture and lab time targeting the key programming
languages, economics and finance basics, and mathematics and statistics
students will need to succeed in the demanding MSAN program.
“Most schools do not
offer this type of intensive preparation – one more aspect that sets the MSAN
program apart,” said Terence Parr, director of the program. Professor Parr, an
associate professor of computer science, most recently served as an expert
witness in the Oracle vs. Google Android trial. “The academic boot camps are
crucial to ensure that our cohort of 17 students, with diverse professional and
educational backgrounds, start the semester with the same fundamentals. The
incoming students already have impressive academic credentials, but we still
need the boot camps to even out their skills in three critical areas. The boot camps are also a great opportunity
to strengthen ties among the students.”
The M.S. in Analytics
degree begins this Fall after two years of planning by Professor John Veitch,
associate dean for MBA and business programs in the USF School of Management.
Professor Veitch initially brought together faculty members from both Arts and
Sciences and the School of Management to shape a curriculum that combined USF’s
strengths in computer science, financial economics, and business processes to
meet the explosive demand for data scientists. With the support of USF Provost
Jennifer Turpin, Veitch worked closely with Chris Brooks, associate dean of sciences
for the College of Arts and Sciences, to bring the MSAN program to fruition.
The explicit
interdisciplinary collaboration across USF in the MSAN program is what sets it
apart from competitors. “Analytics necessarily pulls from different disciplines
to accomplish its end goal of analyzing huge and complex streams of data,” Parr
explained. “The MSAN program engages faculty from across business, computer
science, and economics. It is simply the only way to provide students with the
broad quantitative, business, and communication skills they need to excel as
expert business analysts and data scientists.”
Parr said that the need
for this type of graduate program stems from the deluge of data generated by
companies, governments, and organizations every day. “It is increasingly clear,
through appropriate analysis of all such data, there are great opportunities to
drive business strategy and improve decision-making,” Parr stated. “It is also
clear from our discussions with local tech companies, that they just can’t
scale fast enough because they cannot find enough new employees with the
necessary skill set. Data analytics is the hottest training you can get right
now.”
“The MSAN program
exemplifies the University of San Francisco’s agility to react to changing
industry needs by developing and providing rigorous interdisciplinary programs
by building on USF’s academic strengths,” Veitch said. “The USF Analytics
program is an exciting, high visibility partnership between faculty, students,
and industry that prepares students to meet the challenges of complex sets of
data and its impact on business and society.”
For additional details
about the M.S. in Analytics, please visit http://analytics.usfca.edu/.
To request interviews
with Professors Terence Parr or John Veitch, please contact Anne-Marie Devine,
USF’s senior director of media relations, at (415) 422-2697 or abdevine@usfca.edu.
