UVA Professor: Don’t Think of Data Science as ‘Derivative’ of Other Fields

As data science education programs continue to evolve, communicating exactly what the field encompasses and can achieve will be critical. At a December conference, Brian Wright, associate professor with the University of Virginia's School of Data Science and director of its undergraduate programs, challenged attendees to think of the field as its own discipline and not simply related to others:

“We need to abandon the idea that Data Science is fundamentally derivative of other disciplines. Other disciplines do not caveat their study as being footnotes in other fields.”

The Data Science Career Pathways Summit was hosted by The Virginia Society for Technology in Education and featured leaders from K-12, higher education, and business for a discussion on how Virginia students can chart a path toward the careers of the future. 

For more information about the summit, read a full write-up from Data Science 4 Everyone. 

And to hear more about the future of data science education, check out our recent podcast.