Florida Atlantic University Gets $2.4 Million Grant To Expand Data Science Program

The National Science Foundation awarded a grant to researchers at Florida Atlantic University and partners to help the school to train potential new data scientists.

Florida Atlantic University College of Engineering and Computer Science together with the University’s Schmidt College of Medicine, Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science have been jointly awarded a $2.4 million grant to train graduate students in data science technologies and applications.

This is interesting because data science and technologies are a transdisciplinary area that encompasses computing, statistics, and various application domains including medicine, nursing, and business applications among others.

The research team will be led by Borko Furht, Ph.D., principal investigator, a professor in the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science who is also the director of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (CAKE), FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Furht says:

Effective data scientists need to be able to work in interdisciplinary teams and to use data visualization and communication skills to communicate their findings to individuals not trained in data science. Our program will produce graduates with technical depth and understanding of data science technologies and applications.”

The Dean of FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, Stella Batalama, Ph.D. also spoke on this grant award and it’s importance, saying:

Big data and data science is a burgeoning field that requires a highly-skilled workforce representing many disciplines who are adept at gathering, interpreting, and analyzing massive amounts of data, which lead to powerful new insights.

30 faculty members from across these 5 FAU colleges will be participating in this program that will include the following:

• Development of normalization courses
• The creation of different testbeds for the various application domains
• Boot-camps
• In-depth elective courses
• Professional workshops

In total 45 people will be included in this program, 30 faculty members, and 15 masters students. The program also hopes to include an additional cohort that would include 10 to 12 Ph.D. students and 12 to 15 master’s students each year, which will be supported by the various departments as well as future grants to continue in this program.