ADSA presentation to the Education SIG on May 28, 2020. Describes 6 years of experience with a capstone program as part of the MS in Data Science at the University of Virginia.

1. University of Virginia
School of Data Science
Capstone Experience –
SWOT Analysis
Philip E. Bourne
peb6a@virginia.edu

2. Growing the School
To be a national and international leader in responsible data science emphasizing interdisciplinary
collaboration which results in furthering discovery, sharing knowledge, and societal benefit
M.S. IN DATA SCIENCE
Residential & Online2020
2020-2023
UNDERGRADUATE
COURSES
increase to 18
courses per AY
2021
PH.D. PROGRAM
2023
UNDERGRADUATE
MAJOR
Building occupied
Team Size (FTEs)
5
40
60
80
120
2013

3. Capstones - Context
• 11 month MSDS program – Summer + 2 semesters
• 7th year about to start – including online (2nd year)
• Parallel Bootcamps Practice and Application Course
• Teams of 3-4 working with a mentor (SDS) and sponsor (public and
private)
• Pitch Day/Profile match – students typically get first or second choice
• Bi-weekly meetings
• Cumulates in an IEEE SIEDS conference paper and presentation

4. Example Research Areas
RESEARCH
Cybersecurity
Detecting broad-spectrum cyber
threats almost immediately after
they are launched through a $7.6
million Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) grant.
Environment
Using NASA data collected aboard the
International Space Station to examine
climate change in the Shenandoah
National Forest and beyond, and find
solutions
Health & Medicine
Securing high-performance computing
equipment and personnel to allow
collaboration across the university on brain
science research like Autism, Alzheimer’s,
mental health disorders, traumatic brain
injuries and more.
Business
Discovering what makes a job
interview successful for the
candidate and the recruiter, and
how to mitigate bias in the
recruiting process
Democracy
Investigating how terrorist groups recruit
women through propaganda and
examining risk and threat assessment for
extremist violence perpetrated by women.
Education
Helping economically disadvantaged,
underrepresented populations pursue
tailored educational workforce pathways
that have a higher probability of leading
them to success.

5. Capstones - Strengths
• Core of our pedagogy, our philosophy and the way we
present the program and the new SDS to the world
(marketing, reputation)
• Experiential learning
• Team science
• JIT skills building
• Project management skills development
• Professional development more generally – collaboration,
communication

6. Capstones - Weaknesses
• Human resource intensive
• Keeping mentors on the same page
• Some projects don’t meet learning objectives – need a
real world problem to solve with ds tools
• Sponsors do not want to / cant pay – need that skin in the
game
• NDA’s /IP generally solvable but takes time
• IRB approval can delay projects

7. Capstones - Opportunities
• Engage alumni in projects
• Full range of domain interest – humanities, social sciences
as well as STEM – forges strategic relationships
• Creates long term trusted corporate partnerships which
leads to other opportunities
• Move to multiyear agreements
• Seminar model (possibly)

8. Capstones - Threats
• Inability to scale
• Projects not meeting the needs of the marketplace – no
value on a job interview
• Mentors not engaged
• Students demand for projects in specific domains cannot
be met
• Capstones online do not work out as we hope