Data science is one of the most lucrative jobs of the current times. Year after year, the number of aspirants lining up to join this field is increasing. Most of these candidates undergo upskilling programs offered by edtech platforms or offline coaching institutes to prepare for the role. But given the growing importance of this field across sectors and the enthusiasm among people to pursue it as a full-fledged career, is it time for colleges and universities to offer data science as a separate engineering discipline?
Analytics India Magazine spoke to a few industry veterans and academicians to understand the pros and cons of taking this path.
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How does a B tech in Data Science help?
Venkat Raman, co-founder, Aryama Labs, says, “I would say it is a positive development. Academia and industry alike are now starting to realise that short 3 months/6 months/1 year courses are not rigorous enough to make anyone a thorough data scientist. In-depth statistics and mathematics knowledge is essential to succeed in data science. To develop this in-depth knowledge, short time frame courses are simply not enough.”
- A longer course can lay down a solid base in fundamentals
Usually, students and aspirants who want to pursue a career as a data scientist look for short courses of 3 to 6 months from training institutes that provide such data science training programs. Though these courses do help, a full-fledged four-year undergraduate program in data science from recognised universities will create a better foundation. It will take students from basic concepts to advanced theories of data science with practical exposure without any time crunch that short training courses often lack.
IITs have been at the forefront of launching such programmes. IIT Guwahati has recently introduced a B Tech programme in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence from the academic year 2021-2022. The first batch of 20 students will be admitted based on JEE Advanced 2021 counselling.
“Having a dedicated undergraduate program helps in training students in a wholesome manner. In a well-designed undergraduate program, the foundational courses will cover the essentials of DS and AI, whereas the advanced and elective courses broaden their perspective in applying DS and AI across several domains,” Professor Ratnajit Bhattacharjee, Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, IIT Guwahati and Dr Ashish Anand, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Associate Faculty, Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Guwahati, jointly wrote in an email response to AIM.
CBSE recently announced that for the 2021-2022 session, it would introduce coding as a topic for students in classes 6th to 8th and data science for students in 8th to 12th. If school students are already getting a taste of the flavour of data science and AI, it will make sense to offer an undergraduate degree in data science for students who want to make a career in this. It will give them a good head start over students getting introduced to it at a postgraduate level.
But is it too niche?
Data science requires knowledge of different subjects, and providing an undergraduate degree in it can be way too niche, some feel. Anubhav Chatterjee, Researcher at Wipro AI Labs, says, “I don’t believe in Data Science being offered at an undergraduate level as a specific course in itself. Data Science is a vast domain and deals with …….
Source: https://analyticsindiamag.com/b-tech-in-data-science-way-forward-or-too-niche/