UBC MDS

After eight months of coursework, the UBC Master of Data Science (MDS) program concludes with a 2-month Capstone project. We partnered with Ido Roll from UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) to analyze data from UBC’s massive open online courses (MOOCs). UBC offers dozens of MOOCs to thousands... [Read More]

One of the most rewarding aspects of working on the UBC Master of Data Science program has been the close collaboration between my home department, computer science, and the statistics department here at UBC. The collaboration has also come with a challenge, though: the two communities often use different words... [Read More]

When people stress the importance of good communication in data science, they are usually saying something like what Hadley Wickham says in his book R for Data Science: “[It] doesn’t matter how great your analysis is unless you can explain it to others: you need to communicate your results.” In... [Read More]

Over the years I’ve struggled with the disconnect between “algorithms” — as a student might see in a standard algorithms and data structures class — and optimization. Several of the algorithms taught in such courses are in fact instances of (discrete) optimization: for example, dynamic programming (DP), or Dijkstra’s algorithm... [Read More]

This is an exciting time for the UBC MDS program, with the second cohort starting their journey in just a few days. We are thrilled about the strength and diversity of our incoming class. Here are some facts about the incoming cohort: [Read More]