Data Science
Undergraduate Research Projects Showcase
A celebration of research, design, and creative theses—a requirement of every graduating senior through the Major Qualifying Project—takes place each spring on campus. Student teams representing all academic departments present their work to their faculty advisors, external sponsors, and the community-at-large, and the public is invited.
Congratulations! Best Paper Award goes to Allison Rozet, Olga Poppe, Chuan Lei and Elke Rundensteiner!
Best Online Program
WiDS Central Massachusetts Annual Conference
WiDS Central Massachusetts is an independent event that is organized by WiDS Central Massachusetts hosted at Worcester Polytechnic Institute as part of the annual WiDS Worldwide conference, the WiDS Datathon, and an estimated 200 WiDS Regional Events worldwide. Everyone is invited to attend all WiDS conference and WiDS Datathon Workshop events which feature outstanding women doing outstanding work.
An estimated 200+ locations join this conference worldwide. The Global WiDS Conference aims to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and to support women in the field.
This one-day technical conference provides an opportunity to hear about the latest data science-related research and applications in a number of domains, and to connect with others in the field.
Recent Alumni Careers
Yang Tao, Retail marketing team, strategy & operation analyst, contractor for Google
During my course of study, I could choose different classes in areas like AI, machine learning, Big Data, and business intelligence. I learned database (sql), data processing and analysis (python), data reporting (tableau). Each course benefited me during my job hunting, as I talked about my projects in the different courses to match different roles and job descriptions. Through my graduate qualifying project (capstone), I also learned new techniques/methods/software to solve data related problems, while improving my public speaking and communication skills.
Alexander Shoop, Software Engineer at DataRobot
The Data Science graduate program has taught me the necessary fundamentals of machine learning and pragmatic data science projects through teamwork. Personally, it has also allowed me to use my creative talent, especially with regards to presentations and video demonstrations. I would absolutely recommend the Data Science program (undergraduate, graduate, and PhD) to any of my friends and colleagues! The program emphasizes team collaboration and working towards having a diverse skill set to handle any kind of data science scenario.
Mukund Khandelwal, Quantitative Associate at Wells Fargo
The overall graduate experience involved collaborating with students coming from different academic and cultural backgrounds. Through this experience, I learned how a problem could be approached from multiple angles and solved effectively.
Chen Liang, Data Scientist at Burning Glass
This program starts from a fundamental base and keeps upgrading the difficulty, which made me comfortable and built up my confidence and enhanced my skills—and ultimately made me ready to walk into my new job. It has provided such a great way to not only get our hands dirty real quick, but allows us to innovate.
Rosemarie Day, Senior Engineer in Applied Data Science at Collins Aerospace
I greatly enjoyed the GQP, which connected me with a company and a project that I could interact with and develop while finishing my degree. The project work allowed me to grow my skills in more of a corporate environment while still in school. This provided me with insights into how a data science team works outside of the classroom, what expectations would be set, and also allowed me to work alongside both other students and industry professionals.
Manasi Vartak '10
Manasi Vartak '10 founded Verta to help companies build AI-enabled products faster than ever.
$2.8 Million to Help Soldiers Suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury
WPI Secures $2.8 Million to Develop a Smartphone App to Help Assess the Health of Soldiers
The project, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), aims to use “smartphone biomarkers” and machine learning to create an early warning system for soldiers and veterans who may be suffering from traumatic brain injuries and infectious diseases.
WPI Computer Science professors Emmanuel Agu, faculty director for WPI’s Healthcare Delivery Institute, and Elke Rundensteiner, director of the university’s Data Science Program, are developing the new technology. The $2.8 million award from DARPA comes through its Warfighter Analytics Using Smartphones for Health (WASH) program.
Promoting the Data Science Minor at WPI Campus Center
Prof. Lane Harrison, Luke Buquicchio and Walter Gerych promote the Data Science Minor in the WPI Campus Center.
Professor Rundensteiner quoted in TechTarget
Skills and Temperament Drive Success in Cloud-based Data Science
Fearlessness, curiosity, and mastery of statistics are keys to data science success, says Elke Rundensteiner, director of WPI’s Data Science program.
STEM Degree Program
WPI’s Data Science program is a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-designated degree program. Its Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Code is 30.0801, indicating it has a Mathematics and Computer Science focus.
