Spring semester at Franklin College brings with it a new offering among the college’s list of majors. The addition of its new data science major provides a direct path for students seeking career opportunities in the rapidly growing field.

Data science is an interdisciplinary field that lies at the intersection of mathematics and statistics, computer science and content-specific domain knowledge, such as business or political science.

“Many Franklin College graduates are already working in the data science field with companies such as Salesforce, Facebook and Eli Lilly and Company,” said Kristin Flora, Ph.D., Franklin College vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college. “The goal of creating the new major is to make it easier for our graduates to make their way into the field without having to double major or attend graduate school for additional training.”

Flora said the new major reflects Franklin’s commitment to the liberal arts by retaining the core curriculum, while adding a carefully balanced selection of mathematics, statistics and computer science courses so students can learn the skills they need to be successful as data scientists.

“The new major has some unique features versus those offered at other colleges and universities, including a data ethics component, a data equity and bias course, and the ability for students to choose a related field of study that applies data science techniques,” said Flora.

“The addition of the data science major helps further advance our digital fluency initiative and is an important component of our liberal arts curriculum as we prepare our students for the current and future career marketplace,” she said.

The college was awarded a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. in 2020 to help strengthen technology integration and expand learning opportunities for students, faculty and staff. The college launched its digital fluency initiative in 2021. Through a partnership with Eleven Fifty Academy, alumni will have an opportunity to sharpen their digital fluency skills, as well.

The college has added three new majors in recent years, including neuroscience, sports communications and actuarial science.

Contact the Franklin College Office of Communications for more information at (317) 738-8185.

POSTED Jan 27, 2022