With a new academic year comes new program offerings at Case Western Reserve University—and in the case of the university’s engineering school, new accomplishments on a national stage. 

Case School of Engineering has a 140-year history of firsts, including being home to the first computer engineering degree and the first stand-alone polymer department. Now, its Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Analytics program is the first of its kind in the United States to be accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. 

The program takes students through a rigorous curriculum that includes mathematical and statistical modeling, informatics, data systems and analytics, and project-based applications in various data domains—all elements of the emerging data science field. 

Vipin Chaudhary, chair of the Computer and Data Sciences Department and the Kevin J. Kranzusch Professor, said the department’s faculty, staff and students deserve all the credit for achieving this “remarkable milestone.” 

“Data science is a fast-growing discipline with a robust demand from industry and applications to other sciences,” Chaudhary explained. “Having the first ABET-accredited data science program clearly prepares our students well and gives them an advantage in the market and it helps the industry pick our students knowing they have been through a well engineered and outstanding data science education in the world.”