BSIT Data Science Concentration
Format: In person on the Statesboro Campus or the Armstrong Campus in Savannah
Credit Hours: 124
Program Overview
The Department of Information Technology offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology with a concentration in Data Science at the Statesboro Campus.
As an aspiring data scientist, you are the force driving our ability to use big data. As an IT student with a concentration in data science you will:
- Analyze big data sets to gain actionable insights to help businesses work smarter and make better decisions.
- Gain a solid understanding of the life cycle approach to data analytics.
- Use the tools and techniques necessary to solve problems in big data and data analytics.
Read more about big data and the emerging data science scene at Georgia Southern.
View the BSIT Data Science concentration in the university catalog.
What’s Different About the Data Science Concentration?
In addition to common IT core courses, the data science degree also requires courses that focus on the skills needed to manage big data:
Data Visualization
IT 3230 Data Visualization – This course introduces students to the field of data visualization. The course covers basic design and evaluation principles to prepare and analyze large datasets, and standard visualization techniques for different types of data. The course prepares students to communicate clearly, efficiently, and in a visually compelling manner to a variety of audiences.
Data Mining
IT 4136 Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining – The course covers the process of automatically extracting valid, useful, and previously unknown information from data sources and using the information to make decisions. This course is designed to provide students with a solid understanding of the knowledge discovery process and the use of data mining concepts and tools as part of that process.
Data Analytics
IT 5135 Data Analytics – This course covers the basic issues involved in building and populating a data mart to support the planning, designing and building of business intelligence applications and data analytics. Core concepts related to business intelligence and analytics are covered. For graduate students a significant research project will be assigned as a culminating experience.
CISM 4237 Business Intelligence – This course is an introduction to business intelligence and business analytics. Students will be exposed to recent technological developments in these areas, as well as best practices.
CISM 4239 Advanced Business Analytics with SAP HANA – This course covers advanced practices and concepts in the areas of business intelligence and business analytics. The course will emphasize more the data foundation required to support business intelligence and business analytics, rather than associated applications. Special emphasis will be given to the SAP HANA big data platform.
Data Programming
IT 2430 Data Programming 1 – The course provides students with an introduction to the main concepts in programming including variables, expressions, statements, conditional execution, functions, iteration, strings, and files.
IT 2431 Data Programming 2 – The course provides students with an introduction to the main concepts in programming related to data. The course focuses on data storage, using regular expressions to search data, interaction with a database, and visualization of data.
IT 3432 Advanced Analytics Programming – The course provides students with the necessary tools and techniques to manipulate, process, clean and analyze data at an advanced level using Python. Specifically, students will use IPython, NumbPy, and pandas to load, clean, transform, visualize and analyze data.
Big Data Capstone
IT 4137 Data Science and Big Data Analytics Capstone Project – This course covers the process of analyzing big data sets to potentially gain actionable insights for an organization. This course provides students with a solid understanding of the life cycle approach to data analytics and the tools and techniques necessary to solve problems in big data and data analytics.
Last updated: 2/8/2023