Should a Data Science Study Program Be Opened at STEI-ITB?

Currently the field of data science (data scienceor data science is on the rise. The need for experts in the field of data science continues to increase along with booming-nya e-commerce, digital business, and social media. Job openings requiring data scientists (data scientist) we often read in the media. A data scientist works with data and solves problems in a company or institution. client by using the data that has been obtained.

FYI, quoted from Wikipedia, data science is a multi-disciplinary field that uses scientific methods, algorithms, processes, and systems to extract knowledge (knowledge) and gain insight (insight) from data, both structured data and unstructured data.

Data science is a multidisciplinary field (Brendan Tierney, 2012)

In this internet age, human life is flooded with data everywhere. Much data has been collected and stored, including data from the web (web access) and transaction data on websites. e-commerce, transaksi keuangan (perbankan, ., dll), perdagangan online, pemesanan online, tweet And posting on social media, etc. This big data, so it is called .it is very valuable for institutions to estimate or predict outcome forward. The data will be “oil” only in the 21st century, has high value and is expensive, as is the case with petroleum which has become a valuable object on this earth.

The term data science was unknown and unheard of until the 1990s. Before that, we only knew statistics as a tool for analyzing data. The definition, or name, data science only emerged after the 1990s when some professors looked at statistics curricula and thought it would be better to call it data science. data science.

As mentioned above, data science is not a stand-alone science, but rather a multi-disciplinary science because it uses theories and techniques from many fields, especially from mathematics, statistics, and... computer science, to investigate and analyze large sets of data that help decision makers solve problems.

Data science is a multidisciplinary field (Source: Edureka)

Beberapa materi computer science what is needed in data science is programming, pattern recognition, data visualization, data warehousing, high performance computing, database, ., ., etc. Material from mathematics for example function, matrices, linear equation system, mathematical modeling, etc. Material from statistics for example probability, data distribution, statistical and stochastic modeling, regression, dll.

Data science is closely related to the field of AI (.), khususnya .. . as shown in the image below, because data science uses a data science approach. machine learning to make estimates, predictions, or classifications. A data scientist solves problems with data. As we know, . And . learn from past data to produce a model that can be used to estimate solutions to problems to be solved.

The relationship between data science and AI (Source: DTS Kominfo material).

What's so interesting about data science? Of course, its usefulness in solving problems (problem solving) or answer questions using data. Goal data science is making predictions into the future and improving output in the future (future outcomes).

Several universities outside of ITB have launched data science programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Examples of such programs include the Sumatra Institute of Technology (ITERA) and Telkom University. Several other universities, such as UNY Yogyakarta and UPN Veteran, are also preparing to launch undergraduate data science programs.

STEI-ITB itself doesn't offer a data science study program for either undergraduate or graduate levels. However, the Master's Informatics program already offers options for Intelligence Systems and Business Intelligence, which are somewhat related to data science. Next year, the new Master's Informatics curriculum plans to introduce AI and Data Science options.

An interesting question is whether STEI in particular, or ITB in general, should open a Data Science Study Program? Will ITB follow the current trend by opening a Data Science Study Program? Is the field of data science a trend momentary or is it a future need?

This question is a bit difficult to answer. If you look at the material required in data science, it's actually covered in the Informatics Engineering undergraduate program. The ITB Informatics curriculum already includes most of the material in data science (mathematics, statistics, programming, databases, AI, etc.). ., pemodelan, software engineering, etc.). Likewise, the Information Systems and Technology (STI) Study Program curriculum already includes some data science material. Informatics graduates, as well as STI graduates, possess the competencies of a data scientist. They are capable of performing data scientist duties because of the knowledge they have been provided in their lectures.

So, is there still a need for a Data Science study program at STEI? Or is it sufficient to just open it as a master's program? The necessity of opening a Data Science study program needs to be thoroughly studied. However, whatever decision STEI or ITB makes, STEI's lecturers are certainly ready and supportive of the proposed concept.