The New York Times discusses the tremendous demand for data science professionals, and the sources of these professionals. (Mostly computer science programs, of course …)
Bill Howe of UW CSE and the UW eScience Institute gets the last word in the article:
“The question, said Bill Howe, who teaches data science at the University of Washington, is whether it is even possibleto instill in a single person all the skills needed, from statistics to predictive modeling to business strategy. The university’s offerings range from a free online course on Coursera to a nine-month certificate program to a Ph.D. track in Big Data.
“‘It remains to be seen,’ he said, ‘but we’re still of the mind that a curriculum that aims to train data scientists is feasible.’ He added: ‘What employers want is someone who can do it all.'”