Dallas, Texas (SMU) A groundbreaking new collaboration between telecommunications giant AT&T and SMU is going to deliver high-level training, practical experience and a potential employment offer in the field of data science for a group of university students who are spending the summer together both in the classroom and on the job.
AT&T is covering the cost of the training for the students and for the overlapping on-site internship. After the program ends, each participant who earns an SMU certificate for completing the on-campus boot camp and the internship will receive interviews for permanent positions with AT&T after graduation.
Weve had interns for years, but weve never really done a boot camp where we actually have the formal training using the Artificial Intelligence tools we use here internally at AT&T and then collaborate on projects, too, said Mark Austin, AT&Ts vice president for data science. So, this is unique, and were excited about it.
The nine students selected for the program are spending half of the summer in an SMU classroom led by Dr. Bivin Sadler, technical assistant professor and course lead faculty for SMUs online Master of Science in Data Science program. Part of that boot camp experience includes a competition between the students, divided into teams, working to solve problems presented by their AT&T mentors. Following the SMU instruction, the group will head to AT&T offices for the second half of the summer to work with the massive data sets and corporate-level challenges that are bread-and-butter to the communication companys own data science group.
I havent seen anything like this, Sadler said, but Ive dreamt of something like this where academics and industry blend together with so much passion.
We will actually have them on site, Austin said, adding that the same AT&T data scientists mentoring students at the boot camp will also serve as their mentors when they begin the internship portion of the program. They have some passionate projects theyd love to get done, and theyre going to be working together on those projects.
AT&T was also able to attract a diverse set of candidates. Demand for data scientists is expected to increase by 22 percent over the next decade, according to estimates by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, Black and Hispanic workers remain underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Women who now earn the majority of undergraduate and advanced degrees are significantly underrepresented in computer science fields.
The Data Science Scholars are a mix of undergraduate and graduate students, pursuing degrees in various STEM fields – data science, statistics, math and engineering.
Data science is a team sport, Austin said, adding that different perspectives and experiences increase the odds for success. On the team, we always have a business expert, we have someone who is really good at the coding piece and the engineering piece, and sometimes we have someone who is really good at visualization. Putting those together and making them work as a team is the key to success.
Student participants in the program are:
- Sydney Holder, pursuing an MS in applied statistics and data science
</…….Source: http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_129722.shtml