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CDM 2024 - Computing Faculty

The Bachelor of Science in Data Science is designed to meet the growing demand for data scientists or data analysts who can manage and analyze structured and unstructured data sets and extract meaningful knowledge to inform decisions. The curriculum consists of courses in computer science, mathematics and data management. Students learn about data processing and application development, machine learning and statistical modeling techniques, and the analytical and communication skills to explain results in a meaningful way. DePaul offers a Bachelor of Science degree through the School of Computing and a Bachelor of Arts degree in the College of Science and Health. The two programs share a common core of courses focusing on fundamental skills in data science that students take during the first two years. After the second year, the two degrees diverge in their emphasis and level of specialization. ​

Program Requirements Quarter Hours
Liberal Studies Requirements 76
Major Requirements 100
Open Electives 16
Total hours required 192

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

  • Explain how data is represented for analytic applications.
  • Select and apply techniques for data preparation including normalization and reduction.
  • Perform exploratory analysis to gain preliminary understanding of data.
  • Develop and evaluate predictive models.
  • Perform an independent data science investigation, from data gathering and cleaning to application of data mining algorithms.

Liberal Studies Requirements

Honors program requirements can be found in the individual Colleges & Schools section of the University Catalog. Select the appropriate college or school, followed by Undergraduate Academics and scroll down.

Plan of Study Grid
First Year ProgramHours
Chicago Quarter
LSP 110
DISCOVER CHICAGO
or EXPLORE CHICAGO
4
Focal Point
LSP 112 FOCAL POINT SEMINAR 4
Writing
WRD 103 COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC I 1 4
WRD 104 COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC II 1 4
Quantitative Reasoning
Not Required
Sophomore Year
Race, Power, and Resistance
LSP 200 SEMINAR ON RACE, POWER, AND RESISTANCE 4
Junior Year
Experiential Learning
Required 4
Senior Year
Capstone
Required in major 1
1

Students must earn a C- or better in this course.

Learning Domains

Arts and Literature (AL)

  • 3 Courses Required

Historical Inquiry (HI)

  • 2 Courses Required

Math and Computing (MC)

  • Not Required

Philosophical Inquiry (PI)

  • 2 Courses Required (see note below)

Religious Dimensions (RD)

  • 2 Courses Required (see note below)

Scientific Inquiry (SI)

  • 1 Lab Course Required

Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Inquiry (SCBI)

  • 3 Courses Required

Note

Students must take one of the following ethics courses: CSC 208 (PI), PHL 248/MGT 248 (PI) or REL 228/MGT 228 (RD).

Specified required courses within Liberal Studies may have grade minimums (e.g. C- or better). Please consult your advisor or your college and major requirements.​​

Courses offered in the student's primary major cannot be taken to fulfill LSP Domain requirements. If students double major, LSP Domain courses may double count for both LSP credit and the second major. Students who choose to take an experiential learning course offered by the major may count it either as a general elective or the Experiential Learning requirement.

In meeting learning domain requirements, no more than one course that is outside the student’s major and is cross-listed with a course within the student’s major, can be applied to count for LSP domain credit. This policy does not apply to those who are pursuing a double major or earning BFA or BM degrees.​

Major Requirements

First Year

Course Title Quarter Hours
CSC 241INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE I 14
CSC 242INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE II 14
CSC 300DATA STRUCTURES I4
MAT 140DISCRETE MATHEMATICS I4
MAT 150CALCULUS I4
MAT 151CALCULUS II4
MAT 152CALCULUS III4
1

Students with one (1) semester programming experience may take CSC 243 and one (1) additional Major Elective in lieu of CSC 241 and CSC 242.

Second Year 

Course Title Quarter Hours
CSC 301DATA STRUCTURES II4
CSC 321DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS4
DSC 323DATA ANALYSIS AND REGRESSION4
DSC 324ADVANCED DATA ANALYSIS4
IT 223DATA ANALYSIS4
MAT 220APPLIED LINEAR ALGEBRA4
MAT 349APPLIED PROBABILITY4
SE 350OBJECT-ORIENTED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT4

Third Year 

Course Title Quarter Hours
CSC 355DATABASE SYSTEMS4
DSC 333INTRODUCTION TO BIG DATA PROCESSING4
DSC 341FOUNDATIONS OF DATA SCIENCE4
DSC 365DATA VISUALIZATION4
MAT 360GENERALIZED LINEAR MODELS4
CMNS 201BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION4

Fourth Year 

Course Title Quarter Hours
DSC 345MACHINE LEARNING4
DSC 394DATA SCIENCE PROJECT4
Eight (8) credit hours of Major Electives8

Major Electives

Students must earn a grade of C- or higher in all Major Elective courses. Students must select the eight  (8) credit hours of Major Electives from the following list of courses, grouped by topic:

Computer Science

Course Title Quarter Hours
SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING
CONCEPTS OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
WEB APPLICATIONS
OPTIMIZED C++
COMPUTER SYSTEMS I
COMPUTER SYSTEMS II
DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Mathematics

Course Title Quarter Hours
MULTIVARIABLE CALCULUS I
BAYESIAN STATISTICS
PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS I
PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS II
PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS III
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
APPLIED TIME SERIES AND FORECASTING
OPERATIONS RESEARCH: LINEAR PROGRAMMING
OPERATIONS RESEARCH: OPTIMIZATION THEORY

Artificial Intelligence

Course Title Quarter Hours
SYMBOLIC PROGRAMMING
FOUNDATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Image Analytics

Course Title Quarter Hours
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING
APPLIED IMAGE ANALYSIS

Geographic Information Systems

Course Title Quarter Hours
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS I: DIGITAL MAPPING
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS II: COMMUNITY GIS
EARTH OBSERVATION
EARTH OBSERVATION II
SPATIAL ANALYSIS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
GIS ANALYSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH
WEB GIS AND SPATIAL DATA VISUALIZATION ON THE WEB

Information Technology

Course Title Quarter Hours
INTRODUCTORY COMPUTING FOR THE WEB
WEB DEVELOPMENT I
WEB DEVELOPMENT II
INTRODUCTION TO MOBILE APPS

Research

Course Title Quarter Hours
RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM
INDEPENDENT STUDY
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Open Electives

Open elective credit also is required to meet the minimum graduation requirement of 192 hours.

Degree Requirements

Students in this degree must meet the following requirements:

  • Complete a minimum of 192 credit hours (generally 48 courses)
  • Earn a grade of C- or higher in WRD 103WRD 104, and all Major and Minor courses
  • Earn a grade of D or higher in all other Liberal Studies and Open Elective courses
  • Maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher

Program Combination Restrictions

Students pursuing the BS in Data Science are forbidden from pursuing the BA in Data Science through the College of Science and Health. Students pursuing the BS in Data Science are also forbidden from pursuing the Minor in Data Science.