By Stan Paul

Big data is here and UCLA Luskin is ready.

With the expansion of digital technologies for big data collection and analysis over the past two decades, new opportunities have been created for professionals in the larger policy arena. With this in mind, UCLA Luskin and UCLA University Extension have developed a collaborative certificate program that has been approved by UCLA’s Academic Senate.

The new program, Data Analytics for Public Affairs, won unanimous approval during the November joint meeting of the university’s Academic Senate Graduate and Undergraduate councils, UCLA Luskin Interim Dean Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris announced.

“It’s really exciting. We realized there is a lot of demand from mid-career professionals to develop analytic skills,” said Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld, associate professor of public policy and political science, who has accepted the interim dean’s request to serve as the director for the certificate. “We have put together an excellent program that gives them the opportunity to do that.”

At the same time, program planners recognized that these opportunities come with a number of risks and ethical dimensions that all professionals should be aware of, specifically privacy, the reliability of big data and unequal access to the internet.

New methodologies have emerged for data collection, analysis and visualization, and the Luskin School already offers a Data Analytics Certificate for its policy, planning and social welfare graduate students. But these new skills were not part of the education of professionals who completed their degrees even a few years ago.

Steinert-Threlkeld, who initiated the data analytics certificate program at the Luskin School and has served as the faculty lead, said that a bit of data analysis went into the decision to pursue this new venture. A survey launched to gauge interest in such a program directed questions at those who might be interested in adding data analytics to their skillsets as well as at supervisors who would find a benefit in having employees with these skills.

“We had over 300 responses, so that gave us confidence that there is strong demand for this certificate,” said Steinert-Threlkeld, who was part of a faculty committee assessing the initiative, led by Loukaitou-Sideris.

The program as envisioned in the committee proposal is designed to “attract and produce diverse cohorts of students interested in data analytics that can help enhance their understanding of big data and how they can be collected and analyzed, the ethical/social justice dimensions of big data, and how big data may apply to their professional practice.”

Housed at a school known for its emphasis on diversity and social justice, the program intends to “do better than other institutions in attracting a very diverse student body” and to “develop a broader perspective on data analytics courses designed to benefit a wide range of students,” the proposal says.

The program’s focus on public affairs also is designed to help it stand out from other UCLA Extension offerings. The graduate-level certificate, like other UCLA Extension programs, is open enrollment but targeted at those with prior academic experience, preferably a bachelor’s degree.

Four core courses will be required, including an overview of a variety of advanced technologies and their relevance to 21^st-century governance and community development. Another course will examine ethical issues raised by the use of big data and data analytics for governance and community development projects. Topics to be explored include the tension between using data for the public good and protecting individual privacy.

A required data visualization course will allow students to explore approaches to communicating the value and impact of data to stakeholders at different organizational levels. The fourth course requirement is a data science course with two options: an introduction to programming and data science or a geographic information system (GIS) and spatial data analysis class.

Two optional electives included in the program are an introductory statistics class and an urban data science offering.

A launch date for the program has not yet been established but, said Steinert-Threlkeld, “Everyone in the school recognizes the demand for it and the benefit it will give to the enrollees, as well as to the School. We certainly think this will be received well and hope there’s very strong demand.”