Program Overview

Professional Master's Program

The Professional Master's Program in Data Science is a rigorous blend of courses that deliver the skills students need to collect, evaluate, interpret, and communicate data for effective decision-making across a variety of industries.

MDS Curriculum

The non-thesis curriculum requires completion of a minimum of 31 credits. It includes six core courses designed to help students gain an understanding of the computational and statistical foundations of data science.

Core Courses

1. COMP 614: Computer Programming for Data Science [3 CREDITS] — An introduction to computer programming designed to give an overview of programming and algorithmic topics commonly seen in Data Science.
2. COMP 642: Machine Learning [3 CREDITS] — Machine learning is the automation of the inductive learning process that humans do so well.
3. COMP 643: Big Data [3 CREDITS] — Data science is the study of how to extract actionable, non-trivial knowledge from data.
4. COMP 665: Data Visualization [3 CREDITS] — Data is being generated by humans and algorithms at an astounding rate.
5. COMP 680: Statistics for Computing and Data Science [3 CREDITS] — Probability and statistics are essential tools in data science and central to fields like bioinformatics, social informatics, and machine learning.

Specialization

Enhance your skill set by selecting one nine-credit specialization. Program participants can choose from a variety of specializations, including:

• Business Analytics
• Image Processing
• Machine Learning
• Breadth (an area of specialization comprised of electives from the other areas of specialization)

Electives

Choose from a number of courses in computing, ethics, and security.

Capstone

To give you experience applying your knowledge to a real-world problem, you'll participate in a capstone project, offered by the Data To Knowledge Lab (D2K).

• DSCI 535: APPLIED MACHINE LEARNING AND DATA SCIENCE PROJECTS [4 CREDITS] — In this project-based course, you gain a unique opportunity to put your new knowledge into practice.

Online Bridge Course

Rice University's online bridge course is designed to provide you the necessary background in math and programming that will help you succeed in the Master of Data Science program.

Sample Degree Plans

View six example configurations of a Master of Data Science degree plan. These include options with and without summer courses, with and without a computer science or statistics background, and examples for different specializations.