Berkeley’s strength in the diverse areas of data science has been growing for decades, and that growth has accelerated along with the field in recent years. The Division has been innovating and building since its inception, in collaboration with partners across campus and beyond, to comprehensively develop data science and its connections with essentially all fields of inquiry at all levels of teaching and research to ensure Berkeley’s continued preeminence in this field.
Following are some of Berkeley’s highlights to date.
Data Science Timeline
Summer 2010National Academies Study |
The National Academies prepare the ground for a paradigm shift by convening a Committee on the Analysis of Massive Data. Chaired by UC Berkeley's Michael Jordan, the committee develops a broad agenda encompassing computing, inference, and human decision making, based on their study of a wide range of emerging problems in science, technology, and society. The committee's report, Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis, circulates widely in draft and is officially released in 2013, serving as a blueprint for national change. |
Spring 2012Presidential Big Data Initiative & AMP Lab |
In one of Berkeley’s signal contributions, AMP Lab (Algorithms, Machines, and People) receives a $10M National Science Foundation inaugural “Expeditions in Computing” award, advancing the development of the Berkeley Data Analytics Stack. Directed by Michael Franklin, Michael Jordan, and Ion Stoica, the AMP Lab extends the Berkeley tradition of labs crossing systems with data in emerging areas of impact. Out of the AMP Lab will come Apache Spark, Apache Mesos, and Alluxio, as well as multiple start-ups. |
Spring 2012DataEDGE Conference |
Under Dean Anno Saxenian, the I School launches inagural DataEDGE(link is external) Conference to bring together senior industry and academic leaders for a conversation about the challenges and opportunities created by the rise of big data. |
Spring 2013Social Sciences Data Laboratory |
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Summer 2013MIDS |
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Fall 2013Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing |
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December 2013Berkeley Institute for Data Science |
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Spring 2014Project Jupyter |
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Summer 2014Data Sciences Education Rapid Action Team |
The Chancellor and Provost convene the Data Sciences Education Rapid Action Team (DSERAT) to design a comprehensive response to growing student and faculty interest in advancing data science education. A team of faculty is charged with “rethinking at a fundamental level what every educated person must know about quantitative reasoning: how to effectively understand, process, and interpret information to inform decisions in their professional and personal lives and as citizens of the world in the 21st century.” Members: Cathryn Carson (co-chair), History |
October 2014Data-Driven Discovery |
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January 2015DSERAT Report |
The Data Sciences Education Rapid Action Team issues its recommendations. These include:
Faculty across the campus join with staff and student collaborators in a grass-roots effort to begin designing new courses and programs. |
Spring 2015Discovery Program |
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March 2015West Big Data Innovation Hub |
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Fall 2015Foundations of Data Science and Connectors |
Offered alongside Data 8 are six complementary “connector” courses that enable students to experience data science in the context and perspective of a variety of disciplines. Pilot offerings include: “Race, Policing, and Data,” “Health, Human Behavior, and Data,” and “How Does History Count?” Berkeley’s Data Science education program finds its first home in the Undergraduate Division in the College of Letters and Science. |
August 2015DS421 |
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September 2015Statistics Strategic Plan |
The Department of Statistics prepares its Academic Program Review. Its self-study observes, “The major driving trend in the field of statistics over the last decade has been the rise of ‘data science.’ … We have been taking a leading role in this campus-wide dialog. To continue to take such a role will require us to marshal our internal resources and to pursue partnerships on campus that both exploit our intellectual strength and expose us to critical intellectual challenges.” The department recommends that Berkeley create a new organizational structure bringing together statistics, computing, and their applications. |
November 2015Faculty Advisory Board |
Chancellor Dirks and Provost Steele convene a campus-wide Data Science Planning Initiative Faculty Advisory Board (FAB) to chart paths of institutional development and frame an integrated strategy for Berkeley’s global leadership in data science. Members: Cathryn Carson, History, FAB Chair |
January 2016Data 8 and Connectors |
Data 8 is offered as regular course; enrollment increases to 447, and connector courses grow to 217 students. Using Jupyter notebooks across the curriculum, faculty develop new ways to teach diverse students at scale. Twenty undergraduate majors revise their statistics requirements to accept Data 8, in some cases along with the Statistics 88 connector. |
June 2016Pedagogy Workshop |
More than 30 UC Berkeley faculty and instructors participate in a week-long course on the approach and curriculum of Data 8. The Pedagogy Workshop includes support for developing connector courses in participants’ disciplines that connect with and build on the Data 8 foundation. The workshop continues to be offered annually as more faculty and lecturers become interested in integrating data into their curricula. |
June 2016BIDS XDs |
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August 2016FAB Report |
The Faculty Advisory Board issues its report detailing a vision for all aspects of data science at Berkeley, including cross-campus collaboration, faculty hiring, fundraising, and creating a Division to design a campus-scale approach that leverages the University’s academic and institutional strengths. The report envisions an approach that is:
Campus leadership opens the report for broad review and comment. Responses include the Divisional Council of the Academic Senate’s endorsement of the creation of a Division and support for “a rapid and aggressive move into the intellectual space of Data Science |
Fall 2016Diversity and Data-enablement |
The Data Science Education Program and D-Lab introduce modules, short explorations into data science embedded in existing courses, from linguistics to sociology to ethnic studies. A series of American Cultures modules begins. Advanced courses in a variety of disciplines are introduced, such as ESPM 157 Data Science for Global Change Ecology, reflecting important research programs and growing out of earlier connector offerings. |
September 2016Data Scholars |
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November 2016Faculty Support |
An interdisciplinary faculty group submits a letter to Chancellor Christ indicating its support for the FAB recommendations, including the creation of a cross-departmental Division. The letter states: “A major strength of the proposal is the opportunity to integrate outstanding faculty beyond computer science and statistics in its intellectual vision.” |
December 2016Cross-Campus Initiative
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In response to the FAB report and faculty feedback, campus leadership announces next steps in a cross-campus data science initiative, stating, “The campus should invest in a prominent and significant way in data science.” The institutional vehicle is a new Division of Data Sciences, placed at the level of Berkeley’s schools and colleges, to be formed in 2017. |
Spring 2017Advanced Offerings |
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May 2017Interim Division and Interim Dean |
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August 2017Data Science Major/BA Committee |
The L&S Data Science Major/BA Committee, which includes faculty from disciplines from across campus, comes together to design a data science major for the College of Letters and Science. The Committee proposes a major that encompasses courses from faculty from a variety of departments with the aim of preparing students for a wide range of professions involving data science and analytics and for graduate studies in related fields. Committee Members: Alexei Efros, EECS |
October 2017FODA |
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January 2018Faculty Advisory Council |
Interim Dean Culler appoints the Data Science Division Faculty Advisory Council to bring perspectives from throughout campus, advise the Interim Dean, and provide a conduit for socializing important issues. The council meets roughly monthly and the tenure is intended to be the remainder of the Interim process. Members: Bin Yu, Statistics |
January 2018Human Contexts and Ethics |
 New classes are piloted in the area of Human Contexts and Ethics of Data, a universal requirement of the proposed data science major. HCE courses explore the human and social structures, formations, and practices that shape data science activities, from data collection and analysis, to data privacy and security practices, to questions of algorithms and justice. |
February 2018RISELab |
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February 2018Inter-departmental Task Force |
The department chairs of Statistics, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, along with leaders in science and technology studies, new media, cognitive science, and computational biology, assemble an Interdepartmental Task Force to propose basic principles and explore possible organizational structures for the Division. The task force recommends the following goals:
The Task Force proposes circulating its recommendations among a wide group of potentially interested faculty for feedback and convening a smaller task force to draft a more concrete proposal for moving forward that includes this feedback. Contributors to the Task Force report: Scott Shenker, EECS/CS, Chair |
March 2018BA in Data Science
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The Academic Senate approves a Bachelor of Arts in Data Science in the College of Letters and Science. Requirements include courses in human contexts and ethics to help students develop an understanding of the human and social structures, formations, and practices that shape data science activity; and a domain emphasis, or a specialization in one of more than two dozen fields that include data applications. |
April 2018Data 8X |
 Data 8 becomes available on edX in an online Foundations of Data Science sequence as Data 8X. More than 75,000 students enroll. The course is taught by David Wagner, Ani Adhikari, and John DeNero, three recipients of Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award. |
April 2018Ready for Launch |
Campus leadership gives the go-ahead to launch the Data Science Major. In the Division of Data Sciences' Fall 2017 Data Science Survey, 13% of all undergraduates at Berkeley indicated they would be “very likely” to declare as a Data Science major (5/5 on a five-point scale). Departments and faculty across campus take further steps to integrate data science into their own teaching. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine release their study report, “Data Science for Undergraduates: Opportunities and Options,” drawing significantly from the Berkeley developments. |
May 2018Programs Governance Committee |
The Division of Data Science Degree Programs Governance Committee, a working body of faculty from multiple departments, is formed to oversee the data science major and future minor; review the integration of course offerings; curate course lists; liaise with other units, programs, and majors; and provide a focal point for addressing student and institutional issues. Committee Members: David Culler (Chair), Division of Data Sciences
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June 2018HCE Pedagogy Workshop |
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July 2018Pedagogy Workshop for All |
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July 2018Center for Connected Learning |
 UC Berkeley Library, the Division of Data Sciences, and Educational Technology Services create the vision for the Center for Connected Learning, an innovative collider space in Moffitt Library. The beta version of Center provides data science peer advising and consulting, maker workspaces, and VR labs. This creative space, run by student organizations, is designed for students to support other students and encourages shared expertise and community building in the data sciences. |
August 2018Data Collaboratives |
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Fall 20185th Year MIDS |
The I School announces 5th Year MIDS(link is external), a pathway to the Master of Information and Data Science for graduating UC Berkeley undergrads, to launch in fall 2019. |
September 2018Major Open |
With a new advising team in place, students can now declare a data science major. Nearly 1,000 students file pre-declarations in the first eight weeks of advising. |
November 2018New Division |
 Berkeley announces plans for a new division, provisionally named the Division of Data Science and Information. The innovative Division is envisioned to encompass computation, information, and data science and their human, social, political, artistic, and scientific implications. It connects departments from the College of Engineering, the College of Letters and Science, and the School of Information; incorporates the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS); and establishes a new Data Science Commons that will bring together groups of faculty and students from across the University to open new research domains and develop new fields of study. |
December 2018UC Berkeley Strategic Plan |
 Berkeley announces its ten-year Strategic Plan, investing heavily in data science and integrating it across the campus’ signature initiatives. The Strategic Plan provides the intellectual and organizational framework for Berkeley’s next capital campaign. |
December 2018First Data Science BA Graduates |
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April 2019Certificate in Applied Data Science |
Academic Senate approves the School of Information to offer a new Graduate Certificate in Applied Data Science to graduate students across the UC Berkeley campus. The Graduate Certificate in Applied Data Science, an Option II Certificate program, introduces the tools, methods, and conceptual approaches used to support modern data analysis and decision making in professional and applied research settings. |
January 2019Growing DS Enrollment |
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May 2019First Data Science
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August 2019Division's First Associate Provost |
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October 2019Data Science Minor Approved |
The College of Letters & Science, College of Natural Resources, College of Engineering, College of Chemistry, and Haas School of Business approve the new data science minor, a program designed to serve students from a range of majors. The College of Environmental Design approves the minor in November. Along with the entry point of the popular Foundations of Data Science (Data 8) course, the minor incorporates Berkeley's signature classes on Human Contexts and Ethics, which equip students to understand and act on the human and social implications of data. |
November 2019NSF Grant to Improve Data Science Education |
The National Science Foundation awards Berkeley $3 million to evaluate and extend its data science programs. Based in D-Lab and involving partnerships with Mills College and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), the grant will support Berkeley's efforts to ensure that data science remains accessible to a broad range of students. D-Lab Director David Harding will oversee the project, titled “Undergraduate Data Science at Scale.” |
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