Leading the Data Science Revolution

A rising senior majoring in computer science, Lauren Hyde has landed internships at some of the world's biggest tech companies and is a recent winner of the Big Ten Academic Alliance data visualization contest – successes she has achieved thanks in part to Illinois' X + Data Science (X + DS) program.

"I think my involvement in [X + Data Science] at Illinois was a huge part of how I ended up at Apple, as well as my internship last summer at PayPal," she said. "The biggest draw to the University of Illinois for me was the computer science and data science programs. The opportunities I've found here in those areas have been impactful."

X + DS is offering a growing number of degree combinations, offering data science instruction to majors in astronomy, accountancy, business, finance, molecular and cellular biology, and more. This year,  three more blended degrees in chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, and nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering are joining the 21 engineering majors available to students.

"Students are hyped up, understanding how they can use computation to excel in their area of action," said Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider, a computer science professor who co-teaches the CS/STAT 107 course. "To understand how, for example, history can be amplified through data science is one thing that is foundational to the DISCOVERY web resource, and part of the reason we've grown."

"Our main goal is to do everything we can to make Illinois a national leader in data science education," said Fagen-Ulmschneider. “We're already a leader in computer science and in computer science education."

Fagen-Ulmschneider's co-instructor, Karle Flanagan, Ph.D. '22 C&I said that the X + DS program offers a unique opportunity for non-CS majors to gain an advantage upon graduation. As word spreads from veterans of the program, Flanagan is seeing more students register.

"It's a way to enhance their major, make them more marketable, and give them a deeper understanding of how data and data science can integrate with whatever that X is," said Flanagan, who is a teaching associate professor in the Department of Statistics in Illinois' College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, as well as a computer science affiliate. "The goal is to have as many of these majors as possible. A lot is going on in the pipeline right now. It's still the early stages, but the X + DS majors are popular among the students."

CS/STAT 107 will have a record enrollment of nearly 1,200 students this fall, and the interest in data science is coming from Illinois students across many fields of study. Fagen-Ulmschneider notes that the Fall 2024 class was made up of students from over 90 majors, including over 300 from the Division of General Studies (renamed the Division of Exploratory Studies in Fall 2025).

Fagen-Ulmschneider explained why so many students from different majors are interested in the class. "When we designed the course, we knew that... students who were going to do something with data science were going to take [it] as their first course. Students who may have taken it for general studies or another reason could potentially be interested in data science after completing it."

A major reason for the class's appeal is its project-driven approach. Students use real-world datasets to analyze, discover, and visualize the data's impact.

Flanagan said that data science has become part of her discipline. "I got my master's in statistics over ten years ago. When I was a student, we used [the] R [programming language] occasionally, but we didn't often program. Many classes were very theoretical and mathematical, and the technology wasn't there yet. Now, you can't do statistics without data science," she said.

The team is also educating high schoolers in the Chicago Public Schools as part of an effort called the Digital Scholars Program. The instructors are a graduate student and an undergraduate student who teach a six-week version of the CS/STAT 107 course.

"Most of the students haven't seen a lot of data science, so it's an opportunity for them to experience what a course at Illinois is like," said Flanagan. "They complete a final project at the end, and then each student receives a micro-credential—a badge that they can display on their LinkedIn profile, share on social media, or use anywhere else. More and more (CPS digital scholar program graduates) who decide to come to the U. of I. take a proficiency exam. Then they have credit for CS/STAT 107, and then they can start in STAT 207 and get a bit of a jump start."

The CPS data science class will soon offer an extra benefit. Pending state approval, and through the Office of the Provost, CPS high schools will offer dual credit. "They teach a high school course for a year that covers the data science curriculum," Flanagan said. "Students take the same course, spanning the entire year in high school, rather than a semester. At the end of that experience, they get a CS/STAT 107 credit on their Illinois transcript that they can use if they come here or [to] any other university."

The long waitlist attests to the program's appeal, as does the queue for a separate teacher training program in Chicago that the team launched in 2024. That course is taught by an Illinois computer science student, who gives pointers on how to teach data science, introduces the curriculum, and teaches the teachers Python. 

Flanagan said she expects that demand for Grainger Engineering's data science expertise will only continue to rise as more students discover its advantages for their careers.

"At first, people were somewhat skeptical," she said. "They were saying, 'Is this just a fad? Is it watering down the statistics major?' Now people are saying, 'No, this is enhancing the statistics major when we're doing data science.' There's been a huge shift."

The Grainger College of Engineering originally published this article.