Testimonials

Maggie Maliszewski, Student

What makes this programme unique in your eyes?

I really appreciate the flexibility we have in the programme. Everyone follows a set of core courses, but beyond that, we have a lot of room to tailor our degree programme to our specific interests in the field.

Are there any misconceptions about this programme?

I think a lot of people get confused about the Data Science and the Applied Data Science Programme. I would say that the Data Science programme focusses more on developing new data science tools, whereas the Applied Data Science programme focusses more on the practical application of the existing tools.

What is your favourite subject of this programme?

I loved the Probabilistic Reasoning course. It was a completely new side of data science to me and showed me that there’s a lot more out there than the models I studied in my bachelor’s degree. It also sparked my interest in the topic of explainable AI. But it was also the most challenging course I have done, however the effort was totally worth it.

What is the future hold for you?

I hope to go into academia. My main interests lie in the intersection of AI and art history, and I would love to spend my life studying that. I am also very excited about the prospect of teaching courses that are offered at the university.

 

Prof. Yannis Velegrakis, Programme Leader

The new research Master’s programme in Data Science aims at educating and preparing the curious and eager minds to become the future scientists who will push the limits of data science beyond its current state of the art. You see, although data science has opened many interesting opportunities in various disciplines, there will be only that much that we can do, if we only use what we already know. We need the scientists that will lead the development of novel and advanced Data Science methods, techniques, and methodologies to be able to cope with the challenges of tomorrow. This is why I feel so excited about this programme. It is an excellent choice for those that want to advance the field of data science or aim for leading positions that require vision and deep understanding of the existing solutions. 

It can serve as a pillar for a stronger AI of the future. It also complements the Master’s in Applied Data Science, that focuses mainly on the application in novel fields, and that of AI. I am very excited with my role as a leader of the programme, and I really hope to achieve my goal of making it well known in the Netherlands and abroad. 

Zerrin Yumak, Programme Coordinator

Our Master’s programme Data Science relies on a solid scientific base to solve challenging problems of our times in various domains. Our teachers are great researchers with deep expertise and impact in their fields. Our graduates will have the foundational knowledge of theories, principles and methods as well as practical experience on a wide variety of topics such as Data Mining, Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Knowledge and Data Engineering and Data Visualization. This will allow our students to have an impact on both the scientific community and the industry. We aim to encourage our students to become critical thinkers and build a diverse and inclusive community that will shape the future of this field and make a positive contribution to society. I am excited to be the programme coordinator of this new Master’s and looking forward to train and think along with our brilliant students.

Michael Behrisch, Programme Coordinator

A substantial number of societally and commercially relevant problems have one challenge: to convert Data to Intelligence. Our Master's programme in Data Science gives students the means, thinking concepts, and critical/ethical background to scrutinize their use-cases, invent novel solutions for their challenging data-driven problems. After graduation they can become a thought leader in a multitude of application domains ranging from biology, finance, governance, or security. We focus on questions like: How can and should we deal with Big Data?, When is more data (more) meaningful?, How can we understand and explain results of our data analysis? How can we faithfully operate in fields with Small Data? Active and practical learning will allow our students to be trained hands-on from experts and spearheading researchers in the field. I am proud to be part of this selected team as the programme coordinator. My role is to oversee and manage the programmes operational aspects and I am particularly looking forward to continuing to train the next generation of successful visual data science experts.