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New minor in statistics and data science

New minor in statistics and data science

Citing “widespread availability of and access to unprecedented amounts of data and computational resources,” MIT will offer a new minor in Statistics and Data Science through the MIT Center for Statistics.

The new minor will combine both classical statistics with the “increasingly relevant” field of data science, which is concerned with the management and processing of data.

To complete this new minor, students must take a total of six classes. Five come from four distinct categories: Foundation, Statistics 1, Statistics 2, and Computation & Data Analysis. Students must also take a new capstone course, Computation and Applications (IDS.012).

Through courses like 6.01 Introduction to EECS I and 18.06 Linear Algebra in the Foundation category, 18.600 Probability and Random Variables in the Statistics 1 category, 15.075[J] Statistical Thinking and Data Analysis in the Statistics 2 category, and 6.036 Introduction to Machine Learning in the Computation & Data Analysis category, the minor focuses on providing a working knowledge of statistics, probability, computation, and data analysis.

—Lenny Martinez