Data Science & Cyber Security

Yolanda Gil

DIRECTOR, DATA SCIENCE PROGRAM

"We offer a comprehensive Master of Science in Applied Data Science, meticulously crafted to equip students with a formidable blend of data management and analytics skills. This program empowers students at any skill level to become adept data scientists capable of tackling real-world challenges that straddle the frontiers of data management and analytics.

Our interdisciplinary Data Science programs are accessible to students with no programming or computer science background, and are joint programs with other schools at USC.  Carefully designed introductory courses on computational thinking and programming enables students to take advanced electives in machine learning, user experience design and strategy, knowledge graphs, and scalable data systems.

Students learn to work on teams through experiential learning in course-long projects, hands-on homework, class exercises in groups, and capstone classes. Many students take internships during their studies, either in research labs in the engineering school or in local tech companies.

Faculty in this program run large data science projects in natural language processing, social network analysis, biomedical data, environmental modeling, and social justice.  Some instructors are industry and government practitioners that lead large teams and contribute to community open source software projects.

USC is second among all private universities in the number of graduates who join top tech companies. Our graduates pursue careers as leaders of data science teams in diverse sectors including, technology, entertainment, health, and policy. Our alumni network spans Fortune 100 companies such as Apple, McKinsey, Capital One, Google, Meta, Amazon, LinkedIn, Bloomberg, and Associated Press, as well as many locally headquartered companies such as Fox Entertainment, Netflix, ESRI, Age of Learning, Warner Bros Entertainment, and a myriad of others that are part of the vibrant Los Angeles tech landscape known as Silicon Beach."