In 2010, the total amount of data generated globally was two zettabytes. By 2025, the amount of data generated is expected to exceed 200 zettabytes. To put these numbers in perspective, if one byte of data is a single grain of rice, a zettabyte of data fills the Pacific Ocean.

This astronomical increase in the amount of data available in the world, known as the “data explosion,” may be hard to wrap your head around, but it opens a wealth of opportunities for insight and innovation in industry, education, government, healthcare and research. To show prospective students how the University of Delaware can prepare them for these numerous opportunities, UD’s Graduate College and its Data Science Institute are presenting a Graduate Data Science and Analytics Open House, from 5-7 p.m., Sept. 21, at the Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center on the Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus. Representatives from 16 doctoral, master’s and graduate certificate programs at UD will be on hand to chat with guests about how data science and analytics represent the future in a wide variety of fields united by the need to extract meaning and solutions from a sea of information.

It was a love for data-driven solutions that drew Nicolas Cutrona to pursue the interdisciplinary master’s of science degree in data science, one of the programs represented at the Sept. 21 event. “As an economics undergrad at UD, I took statistics and math classes that developed my passion for working with quantitative techniques to solve data-related problems,” he said. “The flexibility of my data science degree allowed me to take courses in different areas of mathematics, computer science and statistics. Because of this broad exposure I had in my master’s program, I found I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics at UD.”

With more than 60 faculty members representing more than 20 departments from colleges throughout the University, the interdisciplinary data science degree is a great example of the many UD graduate programs that allow students to explore and develop their individual interests. Cutrona is now focused on researching novel machine learning algorithms to better extract key information from data.

"I’m working on a problem in probabilistic machine learning classification to find ways to improve model performance," Cutrona said. “With my training in different departments, I believe I acquired a ‘toolbox’ to do meaningful work, make an impact on data science research and go deeper into the intricacies of the field beyond the classroom.”

UD’s commitment to interdisciplinary research and innovation in data science and analytics is supported by the work of the Data Science Institute (DSI), a collaborative effort of over 100 faculty experts to combine disparate, dynamic and distributed datasets to enable everything from predicting the future behavior of complex systems to precise medical treatments, smart energy usage, and focused educational curricula. DSI also supports the University’s data science capabilities and assets, which include the Data Intensive and Computational Sciences Core and the DARWIN High Performance Computing System, and coordinates access to data-intensive research capabilities including bioimaging, fMRI and other core research facilities. All these resources are available for graduate students and their research.

People interested in a fast-growing discipline that leads to excellent job opportunities in a variety of fields are invited to learn more about how a graduate degree in data science and analytics at UD can further their work and interests. Meet and mingle with representatives from these programs on Sept. 21:

• M.S. Applied Statistics Online
• Certificate in Applied Bioinformatics Online
• M.S. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Ph.D. in Bioinformatics Data Science
• M.S. in Business Analytics and Information Management
• Ph.D. in Climatology
• M.S. in Cybersecurity
• M.S. in Data Science
• Ph.D. in Educational Statistics and Research Methods
• M.S. and Ph.D. in Epidemiology
• Ph.D. in Financial Services Analytics
• M.S. and Ph.D. in Geography
• Certificate in Geographic Information Science
• Ph.D. in Hospitality Business Analytics
• M.S. and Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience
• NRT-MIDAS: Computing and Data Science for Soft Materials Certificate
• M.S. in Statistics

Light refreshments and appetizers will be available at the open house. To register or to learn more about the event, visit https://www.udel.edu/academics/colleges/grad/prospective-students/data-science-and-analytics-open-house. For more information, please contact Jasmin Rivers at jarivers@udel.edu.