Program Learning Outcomes

1. Integrate multidisciplinary knowledge to engage in practical data analytics projects, from analyzing requirements to managing data, building models, presenting results, and assessing societal impacts.
2. Identify, use, and evaluate current and emerging multidisciplinary data analytics technologies and tools.  
3. Apply effective oral and written communication skills necessary for professional work including collaboration and presentation to multidisciplinary audiences.
4. Perform independent research in applying data analytics to specific domains.
5. Utilize quantitative skills from a rich foundation of essential knowledge to solve complex, dynamic, and practical data analytics problems in various professional domains.  
6. Work productively as individuals and in teamwork to perform data analytics tasks as part of a multidisciplinary team.
7. Identify ways in which data analytics professionals can contribute to the cultural, economic, educational and social well-being in diverse and multicultural local, national and global contexts.

Program Features

1. Multidisciplinary Curriculum: Features a comprehensive curriculum jointly developed by the College of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Professional and Global Education, the College of Health and Human Sciences and the College of Science.

2. Career-Aligned Opportunities: More than 120 Silicon valley commpanies have hired MSDA students and graduates have for internships and full-time positions, These  companies include Adobe, Airbnb, Amazon, Capital One, Cisco, Facebook/Meta, Google/Alphabet, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Juniper, Lucid, PayPal, Tesla, Uber, Visa, VMWare, Waymo, etc.   

3. Outstanding Faculty: Academic and industry experts provide students with a industry-aligned curriculum and a wide range of practical knowledge and experience in data analytics.

4. Affordable Education: There are 10 courses, for a total of 30 graduate-level units, to fulfill the requirements for a Master of Science in Data Analytics degree. For Acedemic year 2023-24, tuition and fees cost of each 3-unit special session course is $2,700. 

5. STEM Degree Program: Classified as a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) degree program  and meets course requirements for F-1 visa holders.

The MSDA degree requires 30-semester units consisting of 6 core, 2 elective and 2 culminating experience courses. Each course is 3-semester units. 

Culminating Experience (Plan A or Plan B)

All students must complete one of the following culminating experience options as part of their 30-unit program requirement.

Plan A (Thesis)

• The student must write a thesis proposal and have it approved by the thesis committee and pass the DATA 299A course before enrolling in DATA 299B.
• The thesis must meet university requirements as stipulated in this catalog . It will be written under the guidance of the candidate’s thesis committee chair with the assistance of the thesis committee.

Plan B (Project)

• The graduate project is a research or development effort performed by a team of students on a topic chosen by mutual agreement between an advisor and the team. The choice of project topic must also be approved by the instructor of DATA 298A.
• DATA 298A is the first part of the master’s project in which students develop a comprehensive plan and preliminary design of a data analytics project. 
• DATA 298B is the second part of the master’s project course in which each student completes an in-depth written project to achieve the program outcomes and satisfy the program’s culminating experience requirement.