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Graduate Students

Advanced Data Science Option

Grad students conferencingThe Advanced Data Science Option trains students to build new data science tools and apply data science methods to chemical engineering problems. It provides advanced education to students who will develop state-of-the-art data science methods and is intended for Ph.D. students whose thesis work focuses specifically on advanced data science tools.

Students enrolled in this option can expect to interact with peers in similar programs in genome sciences, statistics, oceanography, computer science & engineering and astronomy.

The Advanced Data Science Option is an official UW degree option that becomes part of a graduate's degree title and appears on their transcript.

Description

The Advanced Data Science Option overlays ChemE's standard course requirements. In other words, students must satisfy the universal requirements (see the Ph.D. Handbook pp. 32-33), in addition to the Data Science Option requirements (Ph.D. Handbook pp. 34-35). The latter imposes some extra constraints on course selection. However, note that some of the required data science courses will substitute for other, standard required courses.

Course requirements

  1. Students must take three out of the four following courses:
    • Data Management: CSE 544 - Scientific Computing
    • Machine Learning: CSE 546 or STAT 535 - Scientific Computing
    • Data Visualization: CSE 512 - Scientific Computing
    • Statistics: STAT 509 or sequence of STAT 512 and 513 - Math & Statistics
  2. STAT 509 or STAT 512 and 513 can substitute for the Chem E Math & Statistics requirement that most students fill with Chem E 512. CSE 544, CSE 546, STAT 535 and CSE 512 can all substitute for Chem E 465 A to help satisfy the Course Breadth Requirement (Ph.D. Handbook p. 32) in the area of Scientific Computing and Simulation.
  3. Students will register for at least 4 quarters of the weekly UW Data Science Seminar.

Students interested in data science should also check out other activities of the eScience InstituteOther relevant activities include various tool and method-oriented workshops as well as speaker series.

Admission

ChemE Ph.D. students who choose to enroll in the Advanced Data Science Option must have the approval of their research adviser. Email this approval to the Graduate Program Manager. There is no additional admission procedure.

If you have any questions about the Advanced Data Science Option, please contact professor David Beck (dacb@uw.edu)