Abstract: Still only in its second year, the NC State University Data Science Academy programs have reached all 10 colleges of the university, and students from over 70 programs of study.  Our learners have included undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, staff, alumni and community members.  In partnership with the NC State University Libraries, we also provide collaborative consulting to our community.  External support has included the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, data.org, Vontier, and the Consortium for Mathematics and its applications.  In this talk I will discuss some of the principles that have guided our program development and strategic planning in our startup and building phase.

Bio: Dr. Rachel Levy (Ray) is the inaugural Executive Director of the Data Science Academy at NC State University and Professor of Mathematics. She incubates data science research partnerships within the university, across NC and beyond, leads the design and implementation of the DSA’s ADAPT course model (All-Campus Data Science Accessible Project Based Teaching and Learning), and communicates about data science with national and international audiences.

Prior to joining NC State, Dr. Levy was an American Mathematical Society Congressional Policy Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She previously served as deputy executive director and staff principal investigator at the Mathematical Association of America, as well as associate dean for faculty development at Harvey Mudd College.

Levy has received funding from government grants and foundation and private donations to enable her research in applied mathematics, education, and professional development. She has developed professional networks, written numerous publications, taught as an interdisciplinary educator, and has sparked national and international cooperation in educational policy.  

Levy holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in mathematics and English from Oberlin College, a Master of Arts in educational media and instructional design from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master of Science and Ph.D. in applied mathematics from NC State.

Abstract: In this presentation, I will report out on the work from the Program Assessment sub-group from 2021-2022. That working group explored program-level outcomes (PLOs) and related assessment issues for data science degrees. Our final report and recommendations focus on communication related PLOs. I will detail out the group's conclusions around a recommended scope for a communication PLO and suggested best practices for assessing student achievement of that PLO. Time will be left for discussion and feedback on the recommendations.

Bio: Karl is engaged in a variety of Data Science Educational, most recently by serving as a member of the ACM Data Science Task Force to develop their curricular recommendations for Data Science. He was the founding director of Valparaiso University's undergraduate Data Science degree and ran Valpo's Masters in Analytics and Modeling program for 5 years. Karl is now the Program Coordinator for Data Analytics at Trinity Christian College and is part of implementing the new program there, alongside a new Data Center. Karl specializes in data science as applied to networks and graphs.