Data Solution Design Studio
When entrepreneurs talk about their vision for data, people can be overly confident in their intuition, their data can be less than ready to tackle the problems they envisioned, they may lack tangible metrics to quantify the desired outcome, or they may not know about the existence of newer tools and methods. A data scientist can help shape these visions into actionable projects with tangible outcomes.
The Data Design Studio works on data ideas that serve the public and translate them into concrete data science projects. Overall, students will learn to consult domain experts by quickly understanding the context, setting concrete milestones, managing expectations, defining success metrics, validating data sources, and writing out detailed project briefs. Our goal is to help realize the potential for the public good with data science.
Students should know that this class will emphasize exercising their creativity, observation, and communication rather than cutting-edge technologies and algorithms. You will connect weekly with the project owner to flesh out details around the project while learning practical consulting skills in class.
Learning Objectives
- Students will assist others to articulate their vision by formalizing their ideas with mathematical rigor backed by data
- Students will learn to set achievable and relevant milestones with a reasonable deadline for time-sensitive projects
- Students will learn to manage expectations around data science projects and learn to trade off perfection vs speed
- Students will learn to create maintainable models and documentation meant for a wide audience with different backgrounds.
Student Information
The Data Solution Design Studio accepts students (interns) during the fall and spring semesters. During the academic semester, interns may receive course credit and a grade (letter or Pass/Fail) by registering for the course section under Mentored Research GR5398. Course syllabus, projects, and registration instructions are shared at the beginning of each semester.
Instructors
Wayne T. Lee, Ph.D. (past instructor)
Partnerships
We work with partners in the public and private sectors on projects that enable students to apply their research and data science. Are you interested in partnering with us? Complete the Studio Partnership Proposal Form. Below is a partial list of projects our students have worked on (click the “+” to expand):