UTSA is building bold futures through data innovation

In January, construction crews installed windows on the sixth floor of a new building on Dolorosa Street that will house the School of Data Science and National Security Collaboration Center, including those with the UTSA wordmark etched into the glass.

FEBRUARY 15, 2022 — Editor’s note: This op-ed by David Mongeau, founding director of UTSA’s School of Data Science, and Kimberly Andrews Espy, UTSA’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, originally appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.

Driving around downtown San Antonio, it is hard to miss the “UTSA” etched six-stories high in the glass windows of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s new School of Data Science building on Dolorosa Street.

The truly enduring nature of the building will be the incredible work done within its walls when top data researchers innovate with students to make our world more equitable, informed and secure.

In 2018, UTSA launched its initiative to create the School of Data Science — which will occupy the new building with the National Security Collaboration Center — after recognizing a persistent need in the job market. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 28% job growth in the data science field by 2026, and Glassdoor’s annual report of the 50 Best Jobs in America ranks data scientists as No. 2 in 2021 with a median salary of $113,000.

“UTSA is fully embracing the movement by encouraging and preparing our students to advance with it — in all disciplines.”

UTSA can create pathways to these positions as one of a group of visionary universities designated as both Carnegie R1 and Hispanic-serving that is investing in the U.S. strategically in data science education and research.

Studies by Forbes and others show that among all tech fields, data science ranks the lowest in diversity, with fewer than 3% of data scientists being women of color, with 5% Latino, 4% Black and 0.5% Native American. As a university that awards 67% of its bachelor’s degrees to students who identify as Hispanic/Latino or other underrepresented minority and ranks 26 in the nation for social mobility for its intentional work in promoting student success among its diverse population, UTSA and the School of Data Science can make a strong impact.

Making careers in data science accessible among a population that represents the future of the Americas with roots in Military City, USA, is integral to making our world more informed and secure. A new generation of diverse data scientists can enrich our daily lives in ways many of us may take for granted. They can bring their life experiences to the algorithms — the rules that digital devices follow to perform calculations and make recommendations, for example — in our handheld devices as we shop, scroll through social media, use GPS, pass under video surveillance cameras or save a favorite song to the cloud. They can help to ensure that the data we collect and process to train the algorithms are broad and inclusive.

Moreover, the new generation of data scientists can enjoy the results of and benefit by shaping the future of data science and artificial intelligence, or AI — the simulation of human intelligence by computers and other machines. AI is at the center of a market expected to grow more than 120% every year until 2025, realizing visions for autonomous vehicles, personalized medicine and virtual medical assistants, and ever more sophisticated drones for home delivery and national security.

The data-driven digital economy will only continue to evolve, and UTSA is fully embracing the movement by encouraging and preparing our students to advance with it — in all disciplines.