The programme was introduced in 2017 as part of an exercise to provide undergraduate students an opportunity to do courses across disciplines
Enthused by the response from students and industry, the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras is planning to almost double the number of seats in its Inter-Disciplinary Dual Degree programme on data science.
The programme was introduced in 2017 as part of an exercise to provide undergraduate students an opportunity to do courses across disciplines and build towards expertise in modern interdisciplinary areas that will define the future of engineering and technology. The students in their third year were given an option to upgrade to it.
It is designed to give basic background on data science to students from different disciplines and provide them opportunity to specialise in any particular aspect of data science through electives and projects. The curriculum has a core component spanning across theory and lab courses, covering theoretical concepts as well as programming tools. The student is then allowed to choose three to four electives from a mix of algorithmic or theoretical courses and applied data science such as computational genomics.
Depending on their interest, students can choose to specialise in a specific application area or acquire a deeper grounding in the fundamentals of data science. The first batch of students has recently completed the course. The first two batches had 30 students each. The plan is to increase the capacity to 50, according to a press release from the institute.
“By virtue of their interdisciplinary training, the students undergoing the course are well equipped to be leaders in a digital world,” said B Ravindran, course coordinator.
Nandan Sudarsanam, one of the instructors, said: “In addition to equipping students with tools that would be more impactful in their respective domains, the programme allows them to make lateral shifts in their prospective careers.” (India Science Wire)
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