Learn More About Two New Minors College of Arts & Sciences Students Can Declare

Starting this fall, College of Arts & Sciences students have been able to declare two new minors: applied data science and integrated design.

The applied data science minor is an interdisciplinary university-wide undergraduate program offered by the McCourt School of Public Policy that is available to all undergraduate students. It includes courses taught by College professors, including those in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. 

The integrated design minor, which is a part of the Communication, Culture, and Technology (CCT) Department, introduces students to the study and practice of design through foundational coursework and topical electives. This is the first undergraduate program offered by CCT.

“These two minors are great examples of how liberal arts education is evolving: both are grounded in problem-spotting and problem-solving that cross disciplinary lines,” said Sue Lorenson, the College’s vice dean for undergraduate education. “Because of that, they lend themselves to potential integration with a student’s major. For instance, a government major can use data science to test how well a policy works, and a biology major can use design methods to rethink how research reaches the public.”

Learn more about both new minors below.

Applied Data Science 

Data science is a set of powerful analytical tools used across many different domains, said James Habyarimana, a distinguished professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy and the director of the applied data science minor.

“As we enter the world of AI, it’s effectively going to be used everywhere,” he said.

The six-course minor is available to any undergraduate student at Georgetown. It includes four core class requirements — an introduction to data science course called World of Data, an applied statistics course, a machine learning course and a capstone project. Students will also take two electives drawn from a range of courses on the Hilltop Campus and Capitol Campus.

The program, Habyarimana said, will teach students how to aggregate, query and analyze all kinds of data. It has been designed to be accessible to students across different disciplines.

“The applied data science minor equips students with the analytical tools to advance the Jesuit tradition of research, knowledge and action,” Habyarimana said. “A government student might be interested in doing a project on political sentiment on social media, whereas a business school student might be interested in applying these tools to understanding behavior in the stock market. I can imagine a student in psychology might be interested in looking at mental health applications.”

Lisa Singh, a professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science who teaches the World of Data core course, believes that we live in a world where data is a commodity. It influences people’s decision making in areas ranging from online shopping to health care.  

“Looking at the world through the lens of data is my life,” Singh said. “I’m so excited to get the chance to share those insights with our students in a way that I hope keeps them thinking critically about data and the role it plays in their everyday lives and the world we’re in now.”

Integrated Design

For J.R. Osborn, an associate professor in the Communication, Culture, and Technology (CCT) Department, design is a way of thinking; it is multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. 

Osborn and Evan Barba, also an associate professor in CCT, are co-directors of the integrated design minor. CCT, Barba said, “is a collection of interdisciplinary scholars from fields around the social sciences, humanities and design who all focus on the impacts of technology and society.”

The new minor advances the idea that design can benefit any major in any field, according to the co-directors. 

“So, if you are a major in biology or physics or business, you can take what you know from that major and add the integrated design minor, which gives you a whole collection of design tools that you can then take to the problems of your discipline,” Barba said. “The idea is that we are integrating design into the other majors around campus.”

The minor is 18 credits and 12 of them come from three required core courses: Introduction to Design Theory and Practice; Discovery Studio; and Design Rhetorics. The other six credits are electives, which can be taken at any time.

In Design Rhetorics, the capstone course, students will take what they created in the Discovery Studio class and frame it for a public audience. Design projects are open-ended and aligned with a student’s disciplinary interests. This can include traditional digital and material artifacts like websites or books, but can also include projects like designing a marketing campaign, building robots, developing new chemicals or creating an animated film. 

“When we talk about design, we’re not just talking about artifacts that sit in a room or a pedestal or on a wall,” Barba said. “They’re not just illustrations. They’re not just sculptures. It’s more than that. It’s about a collection of methods and facilitation techniques that help groups of people solve problems together by using their creative energy.”

Osborn and Barba both see the minor as aligning with the Jesuit value of cura personalis — or care for the whole person. Students will approach design as both an object of inquiry and a practice-based liberal art. 

“This is taking the disciplines and applying it to the whole person to be able to use them in different settings and in Georgetown’s charge of tackling the world’s problems for a better future,” Osborn said.