Message from the Head of Department
Message from the Head of Department
As the demand for data scientists continues to rise across diverse sectors such as marketing, finance, healthcare, journalism, and cybersecurity, the Department of Applied Data Science at Hong Kong Shue Yan University (HKSYU) has responded by offering the Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Applied Data Science (BSc-ADS) starting from September 2022. Unlike other data science programmes that focus primarily on big data analytics in business, engineering, and healthcare, the BSc-ADS programme at HKSYU aims to equip graduates with cross-disciplinary knowledge in business applications and liberal arts. It also provides students with the technical skills necessary to explore, process, and interpret large volumes of social data, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. This programme aligns with HKSYU's vision of reinventing liberal arts education for the digital era.
Established in 2020 within the Faculty of Social Science, the Department of Applied Data Science offers a comprehensive curriculum that focuses on three core areas of applied data science: business analytics, digital humanities, and data visualization. Students also gain proficiency in essential statistical and data analytics skills.
In 2020, with a generous donation from the iFREE GROUP and a government matching fund amounting to HK$40 million, HKSYU established the iFREE Innovation and Research Centre, which comprises several research laboratories, including the Big Data Lab, the Virtual Reality Lab, the Social Robotics and Digital Living Lab, and the Innovation Incubation Hub. These state-of-the-art facilities are designed to facilitate multidisciplinary teaching and research, expand the institution's research agenda, and foster a vibrant community of researchers capable of conducting both liberal arts and technology-related research.
The Department continues to recruit the highest-quality faculty and students and dedicate our attention and resources to producing leaders of the field for the next generation to work on some of the most exciting and relevant data problems of the day.