At the moment, data science and data scientists are one of the big buzzwords in STEM industries, but not many know what data science is. Simply put data science is the marriage of computer science with statistics. It involves using traditional statistical techniques and models and making them more intelligent.

An MSc in Data Science at Lancaster gives you one of two choices, statistics or computing. In term one, the choice is relatively easy: if you have a mathematical background the statistical pathway is the best fit for you, or if you want to learn more about the statistical mechanisms behind the algorithms then you should also choose the statistical pathway. Otherwise, the computing pathway is probably the right one for you.

The tricky choices come when you need to choose your second term modules. There are bi-weekly meetings with the data science coordinators which are put in place to help answer any questions you may have. There are a lot of options to choose between, as data science is a multi-disciplinary skill, and can be applied in any industry.

Personally, my favourite part of the course (and one of the main reasons I chose to study at Lancaster) was the opportunity to have an industry placement. In second term, the placement process begins. This is where you apply for placements which the university helps to find and then the company hold an interview for you to join. The placement can be external or an internal research project and this is what your dissertation will be on. The process of getting the placement was daunting for me, as there was a lot of interviews to attend. However, I also found the process fun and useful for when applying either for further study or a job. My biggest tip for the interviews is to be yourself. This is one of the rare opportunities where you are almost guaranteed a placement, if you want it. So be yourself and find a topic which you will enjoy researching. The topics and problems will be hard, this is real-life data; there is no right or wrong way, but you will have to justify why you chose to apply the methods and algorithms which you used. If you have any issues with your placement, Simon as well as the rest of the team are there to help and give advice. Such as, if your placement is cancelled for any reason then they will help offer alternatives which might be of interest to you.

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  Masters study at Lancaster

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