Data fluency implies a familiarity with data science and a basic competency working with data. Many disciplines now require an understanding of how data are collected, stored, analyzed, and visualized. The purpose of this certificate is to prepare undergraduate students for a world that is increasingly data-centric. A massive shift has occurred in our basic interactions with one another, our understanding of society and culture, and our modes of inquiry and investigation. The growth of methods for exploring and analyzing data combined with advances in hardware capability has created possibilities for data analysis on a scale previously unimagined. At the same time, the societal impact of decisions based on data poses many challenges in terms of accountability, bias, and transparency. 

After completing the certificate, students will be able to:

• Create and formulate domain-specific questions and connect them with appropriate data sets;
• Acquire, curate, and process data sets to make them amenable to data analysis;
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of data-science techniques including inference, data-based modeling, machine learning, and visualization;
• Implement algorithms and data-science techniques in Python;
• Apply statistical algorithms to data to extract meaningful information and answer real-world questions;
• Demonstrate critical thinking and skepticism in data analyses;
• Communicate outcomes effectively using exploratory or explanatory visualizations.

Data Fluency Certificate in the University Bulletin

Timeline:

• Students may declare a certificate no earlier than the beginning of the fifth semester, and no later than the last day of classes of the antepenultimate (typically the sixth) semester. There are no exceptions to the declaration window - all declarations must be made within this timeframe.
• Important Note: Students must have completed or be enrolled in two courses towards the certificate at the time of declaration.
• Students must submit a proposal for their experiential component experience by the end of the sixth semester.
• There are no exceptions to the declaration window - all declarations must be made within this timeframe.

Restrictions:

• Students can only declare a certificate once they have an approved concentration on file.
• Students may not earn more than one certificate.
• Students may not earn a certificate if they have more than one declared concentration.
• Only one requirement may count towards your concentration and the certificate. For example, CCI 0111 could be counted towards your concentration and a certificate requirement but CSCI 0111 and ECON 1000 (or CS 0111 and a thesis credit, etc.) cannot both be used towards your concentration and the certificate.
• The excluded concentrations for the Data Fluency certificate are Applied Mathematics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Statistics (including joint concentrations in these areas). According to the certificate guidelines, a student’s concentration and certificate cannot have substantial overlap.

Students in the following concentrations have completed the Data Fluency Certificate:

• Africana Studies
• Anthropology
• Behavioral Decision Sciences
• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
• Biology 
• Biomedical Engineering
• Business, Entrepreneurship, & Organizations
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Comparative Literature
• Economics
• Engineering
• English
• Environmental Studies
• Geology / Geological Sciences
• Health & Human Biology
• History
• International & Public Affairs
• Modern Culture & Media
• Music
• Neuroscience
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Public Health
• Science, Technology, & Society
• Social Analysis and Research
• Sociology
• Urban Studies

Data Fluency certificate alumni are currently working at companies such as: