I am currently a second year electrical engineering major enjoying my studies but I have a slight hunch to pursue more mathematics. As it stands I believe Data Science is a good fit, for it is very mathematical in its roots with some engineering principles when it comes to coding and interpretation. It seems to be a growing field that I would enjoy. I have one problem though I do not know if I should continue pursuing electrical engineering or purse a degree in mathematics and computer science. I do enjoy my electrical engineering classes but I am not sure if an EE as much of a shot at Data Science jobs. Any advice would be helpful.
I got my undergrad in engineering and I’m currently going to grad school for analytics. I really like the combination, but I am definitely an engineer who uses data analytics and not a data scientist.
Signal processing is a very mathematical field within EE and you would likely learn a lot of mathematical and statistical techniques that can also be used in a career in data analytics.
Data Science jobs unfortunately may depend on what subject area we’re talking about and specific techniques and tools rather than engineering style “the basics” where DSP is DSP and VHDL is VHDL.
My wife is an Analytics IT consultant and her livelihood depends on knowing a bunch of analytics package offerings from the usual vendors (Oracle, SAS, Informatica, Business Objects, SAP, yada yada) in a relatively narrow area of work (manufacturing / supply chain). Not Google level “why is the sky blue” analytics. I don’t think we’re there yet.
I also agree with the idea that a ‘hard’ engineering BS degree would be ideal for an MS Analytics or Data Science.
Out here in the SF/Silicon Valley area, Data Science seems to imply things like Big Data, Machine/Statistical Learning, and Data Visualization. I’ve been taking some Coursera Data Science classes in the field because it’s fascinating stuff.
I actually think a CS/Math degree is a little better, but an EE degree should be fine. (Things I learned in my graduate IE program from years ago are turning out to be very relevant to Data Science.) Just make sure you know statistics, linear algebra, a little vector calculus, and some basic CS.
As others have noted, a EE degree can provide an excellent basis for a data science or analytics career - having some programming experience will be helpful, but mathematical skills, experience in designing and building things, as well as specific knowledge such as signal processing will be important too. You can learn the rest. In our Master of Data Science program (http://science.iit.edu/programs/graduate/master-data-science) we have students from many backgrounds, including CS and EE as well as biology, physics, business, and history. Data science is not just about technical know-how - a broad perspective is also important.