Carnegie Mellon University - Where Bold Thinkers Do Big Things

Since its founding in 1900, Carnegie Mellon has been a place where visionaries unite to solve complex problems. At CMU, students are just plain different. They’re bold thinkers. Passionate innovators. And resilient changemakers. They ask detailed questions. Share forward-thinking ideas. And attack problems with a nuanced scope. Here, students don’t just imagine the future. They create it.

Tackling problems that impact humanity

In the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, faculty members have one goal in mind: to improve the human condition by solving the world’s most challenging problems. They’re achieving this through deep disciplinary research and collaborative studies in fields like genetics, cosmology, epidemiology and forensics. Whether they’re researching ethical and policy issues related to end-of-life care, examining how AI can be used for social good, or advancing the state of brain science, Dietrich faculty are always considering the implications of their work and what they mean for the world at large.

Dietrich College faculty also share a passion for educating the next generation of changemakers. Along with experiential learning activities like service projects and internships, Dietrich faculty recognize the power of evidence-based teaching practices like program assessments, and online learning tools like Prose Style and the Integrated Statistics Learning Environment (ISLE) to shape a student’s educational experience. With an eye on the student journey and overall program effectiveness, Dietrich faculty design learning environments that facilitate content mastery and the application of key concepts in the real world. This, in turn, prepares students with the necessary communication, analytical and critical thinking skills to do work that matters at CMU and beyond.

Transforming students into changemakers 

While other schools combine their statistics department with other fields like math, machine learning, engineering or neuroscience, CMU has a singular Statistics & Data Science department (StatDS) with more than 50 full-time and part-time faculty. Being a large, stand-alone department doesn’t mean they’re isolated, though. Strong collaborative relationships are an integral part of the StatDS research mission. With more than four dozen faculty experts, the StatDS department has the resources to spearhead cutting-edge research in interdisciplinary fields like bioinformatics, astrostatistics, criminal justice and public policy.

Much like their colleagues in Dietrich College, the StatDS faculty believe the most effective way to educate students is by leveraging insights from cognitive learning science. That’s why they formed a research group called the Statistics Pedagogy Lab Group - to better understand how students learn statistics. Through research, pedagogy and classroom training, members of this group aim to modernize the statistics curriculum, improve student engagement and, ultimately, develop innovative pedagogical practices in statistics that will transform students into capable problem solvers when they enter the real world.  

With a focus on the myriad applications of data and a science-backed curriculum designed for student learning, the Statistics & Data Science department at CMU is the ideal place for all students to learn data science. Here, everyone can learn how to understand and leverage data - not just those who are technically savvy. Ready to get started? Call 412-501-2686 or send an email to apply@online.cmu.edu with your inquiries.