Public Policy Data Science (MS)

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Big data is revolutionizing the way many agencies operate, particularly with respect to governance transparency and accountability, law enforcement, transportation and housing policy. Big data is changing strategies for crime-fighting, defense, national intelligence, social programs, and finance and operations of agencies. The Master of Science in Public Policy Data Science is a multi-disciplinary program offered jointly between the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and the Data Science Program in the department of Computer Science at the Viterbi School of Engineering, and will provide a curriculum that will make degree recipients appealing to the employers of the 21st century.

Statistics Prerequisite

Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and have a basic competence in descriptive and inferential statistics. This prerequisite may be met in one of two ways: (1) entering students must have passed an undergraduate inferential statistics class, with a grade of “B” or better, at a Price school-approved university within three years of matriculation, and must pass the MPP lab associated with PPD 554 Foundations of Policy Analysis , or (2) take PPD 502x Statistical Foundations for Public Management and Policy and complete with a grade of “B” or better. If students select to take PPD 502x , the units associated with this class may not be used toward the Public Policy Data Science degree.

Public Policy Courses

Core Courses (12 units):

PPD 503 Economics for Public Policy Units: 4
PPD 554 Foundations of Policy Analysis Units: 4
PPD 558 Multivariate Statistical Analysis Units: 4

Elective Course

Select one from the following:

PPD 555 Public Policy Formulation and Implementation Units: 4
PPD 560 Methods for Policy Analysis Units: 4
PPDE 668 Applied Econometrics for Program Evaluation Units: 4

Data Science Courses

Core Courses (12 units):

DSCI 510 Principles of Programming for Data Science Units: 4
DSCI 549 Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science Units: 4
DSCI 550 Data Science at Scale Units: 4

Note:

Students with a computer science background will have the option of replacing DSCI 510 , DSCI 549 , and DSCI 550 with DSCI 551 , DSCI 552 , and DSCI 553 .

Elective Course

Select one from the following:

DSCI 551 Foundations of Data Management Units: 4
DSCI 552 Machine Learning for Data Science Units: 4
DSCI 553 Foundations and Applications of Data Mining Units: 4
DSCI 554 Data Visualization Units: 4
DSCI 555 Interaction Design and Usability Testing Units: 4
DSCI 556 User Experience Design and Strategy Units: 4

Capstone

Students will complete a capstone experience and project through enrollment in DSCI 560 .

DSCI 560 Data Science Professional Practicum Units: 4