“Data scientist” and “statistician” are among the top 10 jobs in 2022, according to U.S. News & World Report. The growing popularity of data-focused careers has created a demand for students who understand the immense challenges and real-world impact of complex data analysis. This demand is the backdrop for the SoCal Data Science program, a collaborative effort between faculty from UCI, California State University Fullerton (CSUF) and Cypress College aimed at recruiting, training and dispatching a diverse workforce of STEM and data science majors.

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From July 11 through August 19, 2022, twenty-three students from around the U.S. came to UCI for the newly launched Irvine Summer Institute in Biostatistics and Undergraduate Data Science (ISI-BUDS). The institute is part of the Summer Institute in Biostatistics program offered through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This year, UCI became only the 10th university in the nation to host this free, six-week summer training course aimed at addressing the growing need for biostatisticians and data scientists.

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Professors from the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) are teaming up with researchers from UCI’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) on a new five-year multi-PI grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The $1.87 million grant, “Statistical Methods for Alzheimer’s Research,” is co-led by Chancellor’s Professor Bin Nan in Statistics (contact principal investigator) and Chancellor’s Professor and Statistics Department Chair Daniel Gillen. The work is a collaborative effort with ADRC Clinical Core Director David Sultzer and ADRC 90+ Core Director Maria Corrada-Bravo, both grant co-investigators.

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UCI launched its Master of Data Science (MDS) professional graduate program in the fall of 2021 to meet the growing demand for data scientists. This year, Fortune launched its first-ever ranking of the top in-person master’s degree programs in data science, noting that “data science is one of the fastest growing fields today, and one of the best ways to break into the field is to pursue a master’s degree in the field.”

Fortune ranked UCI’s MDS program, which is offered through the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), seventh on its list of 28 schools. UCI is the only UC school, and one of only a few universities from the West Coast, to make it on the 2022 list, which ranked data science programs based on selectivity and demand.

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The German National Science Foundation (DFG) has awarded Stephan Mandt, an associate professor of computer science and statistics in UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), its prestigious Mercator Fellowship. The fellowship recognizes international scholars and seeks to integrate them into large-scale research efforts at German universities to foster the international exchange of knowledge. As a Mercator Fellow, Mandt will be integrated into a multimillion dollar initiative at the University of Kaiserslautern, focused on advancing machine learning methodology in chemical engineering.

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On July 1, 2022, Daniel Gillen, chair of the Department of Statistics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), was named a Chancellor’s Professor. The title recognizes faculty who have achieved acclaim for their accomplishments and who are highly likely to continue producing notable achievement in scholarship.

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What are some of the benefits of UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS)? Aside from the fact that it’s the only computing-focused school in the UC system and happens to sit in the middle of “Silicon Beach,” it also offers capstone courses that provide hands-on experience in a practical, real-world environment. The strength and importance of such programs was reiterated June 6-8, 2022, when ICS faculty, students and staff attended the National Capstone Design Conference in Dallas, Texas.

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The UCI Machine Learning (ML) Repository hosted the 2022 Machine Learning Hackathon from May 18 to May 29. Throughout the hackathon, participants engaged with members of the UCI ML Repository and its datasets to build creative and meaningful projects. On June 3, hackathon organizers held an awards ceremony to review project submissions and recognize four winning hacks.

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On June 7, 2022, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) resumed its annual ICS Awards Celebration luncheon, paused during the pandemic, as faculty and staff spent an afternoon reconnecting and socializing. Dean Marios Papaefthymiou welcomed new staff, announced the recipient of the Jim McKenzie Staff Leadership Award, presented the Dean’s Faculty Awards, and recognized a variety of faculty members for recent honors and accomplishments.

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