Cross Disciplinary Science Leanna House, Statistics Educating for Cross Disciplinary Science Leanna House, Statistics

A Minor Cog in the CMDA Wheel Who am I? A Minor Cog in the CMDA Wheel Dr. Eric Smith, Statistics: Wrote the CMDA proposal to SHEV Dr. Mark Embree, Mathematics: Division Lead of CMDA Dr. Michel Pleiming, Physics: Director Academy of Integrated Science Many faculty on the development team Many faculty teaching, developing, participating

Today with CMDA What is it? Milestones and administration Curriculum CMDA moving forward Summary

Virginia Tech’s CMDA Degree COMPUTATIONAL MODELING AND DATA ANALYTICS Disease spread model from Dr Matthias Chung HOW DO YOU MODEL THE WORLD ? HOW DO YOU LEARN FROM VOLUMINOUS DATA ? HOW DO YOU COMPUTE FAST ENOUGH TO MATTER ?

Fundamental Philosophy CMDA = data science + modeling + computing + applications. “BIG DATA” IS DRIVEN BY ALGORITHMIC ADVANCES IN: – linear algebra / matrix theory – optimization – high performance computing MODERN MATHEMATICAL MODELING DEMANDS STATISTICS: – uncertainty quantification – stochastic differential equations STUDENTS SHOULD IMPLEMENT THESE IDEAS IN CODE – More than users of packages: implementation inspires algorithms. STUDENTS BENEFIT FROM A ROBUST FOUNDATION IN: – mathematics – statistics – computer science (including Java, Python, R, MATLAB, and beyond)

“110 majors by the target year of the program (2018–2019)” CMDA Milestones 2011 – 2013 CMDA major designed by VT faculty 2014 CMDA major approved by VT, State of Virginia Spring 2015 CMDA major opens to current VT undergraduates Fall 2015 First CMDA freshman class arrives (45 students) May 2017 First CMDA majors graduate (20 students) Fall 2018 Fourth CMDA freshman class arrives (97 students) “Benchmark of success” in the SCHEV proposal: “110 majors by the target year of the program (2018–2019)”

Growth of CMDA since 2015

Administrative Structure SCHOLARSHIPS SCHEDULING COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE OF SCIENCE COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CMDA FACULTY MATH DEPARTMENT CMDA FACULTY STATISTICS DEPARTMENT CMDA FACULTY ACADEMY OF INTEGRATED SCIENCE (AIS) ADVISING ASSESSMENT BUDGET SCHOLARSHIPS SCHEDULING LOGISTICS

Ingredients of CMDA Curriculum STATISTICS FOR BIG DATA Data mining, machine learning, probability, visualization APPLIED MATHEMATICS FOR MODELING Linear algebra, differential equations, numerical analysis HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING Parallel/GPU programming for data/science/engineering apps ACCESS TO RELEVANT APPLICATIONS: CMDA TRACKS Three special CMDA options: Physics, Economics, Biological Sciences PRACTICAL SKILLS FOR PROBLEM SOLVING Ethics, collaboration, leadership, presentation skills

HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING CMDA Curriculum CALCULUS LINEAR ALGEBRA SOFTWARE DESIGN & PROGRAMMING INTEGRATED QUANTITATIVE SCIENCE HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING MATHEMATICAL MODELING DATA ANALTYICS & VISUALIZATION CAPSTONE PROJECT Four electives drawn primarily from CMDA COMPUTER SCIENCE MATHEMATICS STATISTICS

Capstone Project Course Teams of 3–4 students work on one project for the entire semester. Projects come from external clients (companies or within VT). Teams are guided through a methodical problem-solving process. Focus on teamwork, leadership, collaboration skills, ethics, project management, and communications (written, visual, oral).

Where Do They Go From Here? DESTINATIONS OF SOME 2017 CMDA GRADUATES GENERAL DYNAMICS (3) OPTUM (2) AMAZON LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LAB MITRE CORPORATION FIDELITY (2) CAPITAL ONE ACCENTURE Serkan, I moved these slides here! COLLEGE BASKETBALL GRAD ASST FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GRADUATE SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHING

Where Do They Go From Here? DESTINATIONS OF SOME 2017/18 CMDA GRADUATES ACCENTURE DELOITTE CAPITAL ONE (2) ERNST & YOUNG (2) GENERAL DYNAMICS BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON LOCKHEED MARTIN OCTO CONSULTING (3) NIELSEN (2) MITRE (2) MICROSOFT (2) TIVE US AIR FORCE ONE WEB (2) HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE ONEWEB

Alum Profile: Data Analytics for Physics 2017 CMDA alum Alex Gagliano conducted astronomy research in Africa, South America. Presently employed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he is applying to graduate programs in Physics to pursue his interest in using data analytics to identify gravitational waves. CMDA major Alex Gagliano’s TEDx talk “Looking Out to Look In”

CMDA Moving Forward CONTINUE TO DIVERSIFY CAPSTONE EXPERIENCES As CMDA continues to grow, the welcomed challenge is to continue to partnering with industry and academia on diversify projects on which students work. DEGREE OPTION IN CYBERSECURITY We are exploring the possibility of developing a CMDA degree option in Cybersecurity, consonant with the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative. GRADUATE PROGRAM POSSIBILITIES Graduate certificate for all VT grad students NSF Training Grant application to be submitted in Spring. Professional master’s degree in NCR Can potentially develop in partnership with Statistics Department’s M.A. in Data Analytics and Applied Science (DAAS) Research masters and PhD programs in Blacksburg Faculty aim to recruit excellent graduate students to work in CMDA

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