What is Data Science?

Data scientists are some of the most sought-after professionals in the world today, and students will graduate with a future-proof skill set to excel in their chosen careers. Data science is a trans-disciplinary field that uses statistical and computational methods combined with discipline specific expertise to analyze, interpret and visualize complex datasets. Opportunities for careers exist in practically every discipline and as of 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects and average job growth rate of 36% by 2031, higher than any other occupation!

Why Study Data Science at Montana Tech?

Prepare for high-paying, in-demand jobs through the Bachelor of Science degree at Montana Tech. You’ll receive hands-on experience through course projects, research, competitions, and data science internships. There are numerous opportunities for multidisciplinary projects in collaboration with faculty and other students. Our relatively small size ensures that our faculty have plenty of time for one-on-one interactions with you and your fellow students, to advise and guide your education to reach your goals.

Diverse Faculty with a Broad Range of Expertise

You will learn from a diverse group of faculty that come from all over the world and all parts of campus. These experienced scholars have expertise in statistics, machine learning, data analytics, data visualization, and computer science. These are critical skills for a career in data science. You will find our faculty to be highly accessible and committed to your success.

As a data science major, you can gain real-world experience through internships in Montana and across the nation. Our data science majors have engaged in internships at places such as White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; Micron Technology in Boise, Idaho; and Figure in San Francisco. Our faculty are ready to assist you in making the external contacts to set you up with the internship of interest to you.

Exceptional Location

Work hard, play hard! Montana Tech’s location in Butte, Montana gives you quick and easy access to endless opportunities for outdoor adventures. Enjoy skiing, mountain biking, hiking, backpacking, fishing, hunting – wherever your recreational interests lie, you will find it here in a central location of beautiful southwest Montana.

Expand what you learn in the classroom and have fun while you’re doing it through Montana Tech clubs and organizations, such as the NASA Robotics Mining Competition Club, Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Game Engine Club. You can also learn while having fun through the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, hosted annually by Montana Tech.

Top-Notch Facilities

As a data science major you’ll have access to a high performance computing cluster (HPC) — the first HPC in the Montana University System — for your coursework and research projects. The HPC at Montana Tech is a small cluster that consists of 22 nodes with 362 cores. Associated with it are two 3D data visualization systems that enable you to directly interact with 3D imagery. We also operate a heterogeneous platform for quickly computing different cooperating workloads to solve complicated data science problems and a small, 2-node Harvard DataVerse cluster for curating data for data science projects.

Data Science Internships

As a data science major you can gain real-world experience through data science internships in Montana and across the nation. Montana Tech data science majors have engaged in internships at places such as White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; Micron Technology in Boise, Idaho; and Figure in San Francisco.

Hit the Ground Running

Expand what you learn in the classroom and have fun while you’re doing it through Montana Tech clubs and organizations, such as the NASA Robotics Mining Competition Club, Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Game Engine Club. You can also learn while having fun through the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, hosted annually by Montana Tech.

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Engaged Faculty with Experience & Expertise

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Program Objectives and Outcomes

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Combines Computer Science & Statistics
The Obvious Choice
Learn why data science students choose Montana Tech—from career focus to personal attention to scholarships and more.
$120,000

Average median wage, Builtin.com 2023

36%

Projected industry job growth through by 2031, BLS

2nd Best in Technology Jobs and 8th in the 100 Best Jobs

U.S. News and World Report 2022

My love for Computer Science and Mathematics has always focused on solving real-life problems. Data Science is all about combining Computer Science and Mathematics to solve real-life problems using data. Every discipline has a need for Data Science, and every student should gain experience in Data Science. I hope you will consider studying Data Science with us here at Montana Tech!

Douglas Galarus Assistant Professor

Explore Classes in Data Science

Core courses in the data science degree are taught with a hands-on, project-oriented approach and you will be able to start taking data science courses early in your training.

View all courses for this data science degree.

Learn More About Data Science at Montana Tech
Math Department

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Faculty

Meet faculty and explore areas of expertise and research interests.

Catalog Details

Get semester-by-semester info about data science courses.

Related Programs
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Mathematics

Curriculum features both pure and applied mathematics.

Connect with us.

We can answer your questions and help you get started.

Hilary Risser
Data Science Program Director
406-496-4581