Erin Jones
As 2024 commencement ceremonies quickly approach, Erin Jones is making history as the first graduate of Mississippi State鈥檚 undergraduate data science program.
The Mooreville native began her bachelor鈥檚 in data science shortly after obtaining her first bachelor鈥檚 degree in 2021 from 绿巨人视频in psychology.
Launched in 2022, the intercollege, interdisciplinary degree option offers students like Jones the ability to meet the world鈥檚 growing demand for data science experts, as well as the opportunity to specialize in a specific area of interest.
听鈥淎fter graduating, I considered graduate school for psychology, but I realized I liked the research and data aspect of data science more,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 already had most of the hours and prerequisites I needed, so all I needed to do was take data science and computer programming classes.鈥
Because of her interest in psychological research and data, Jones chose to concentrate her degree in psychoinformatics, one of 10 concentrations within the program.
Organized through collaboration between MSU鈥檚 Department of Psychology and data science program, the psychoinformatics concentration covers a subfield focused on acquiring, organizing and synthesizing data gathered from the field to reveal information about psychological traits.
When asked what she would tell a student considering MSU鈥檚 data science program, Jones said she would highly recommend it.
鈥淭he program is really unique and full of hands-on experience. It requires you to complete a capstone project and do research in your field that will set you up for a job as soon as you graduate,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 think the many concentrations offered in the program are very unique compared to other majors. It really gets your feet wet in the industry you鈥檙e wanting to go into.鈥
Jones said after graduating she would 鈥渓ike to stay within psychoinformatics, but I also have research experience in biology. Ideally, I would like to do bioinformatics, hopefully in cancer research or something similar.鈥
She said gene sequencing is a major part of cancer research, which requires a data scientist to clean and analyze the data.
听鈥淭he field requires a whole data pipeline to get meaningful results from the data,鈥 she said.
On being the first data science graduate, Jones said she is excited and glad to have been a part of the new program.
鈥淚 feel really comfortable talking to everyone in the department. They鈥檙e great and have worked with me a lot since I am an unconventional first graduate,鈥 Jones said. 鈥淭hey made sure I could meet all the requirements and still graduate in only two years.鈥
In her free time, Jones enjoys playing tennis and traveling around the world. After graduation, she plans to visit Canada and North Carolina before relocating to Houston, Texas, to begin her career.
For more information on data science at MSU, visit .
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