Research analytics consultancy LRW Group announced a partnership with UCLA’s Division of Social Sciences to improve the process by which students are prepared for careers in data science. The program and coursework for the data science minor is scheduled to begin in 2020.
Jessica Wolf wrote about LRW’s support for data science in UCLA Newsroom:
The UCLA Social Sciences LRW Big Data Research Partnership will create a dedicated UCLA staff position tasked with recruiting undergraduates and graduate students for paid summer internships in data science. The initiative also will help launch a two-quarter social justice course that will be part of a recently proposed data science minor. The partnership will feature support workshops and roundtables in social data science, as well as guest lectures by LRW leadership and employees.
“LRW’s commitment will seed our efforts to establish a pipeline of underrepresented students into the new social data science minor we are developing as part of the division’s larger big data initiative,” Hunt said. “Along with this generous and important contribution, LRW also has pledged to offer paid internships to some of our most promising students, creating an opportunity for them to envision future careers and gain workplace experience that enhances their academic pursuits at UCLA.”
LRW Group CEO Dave Sackman is a UCLA alumnus who also serves on the board of the Social Sciences Centennial Campaign Committee. He said he was impressed by some of the great work coming out of the social sciences, especially with UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and its Million Dollar Hoods policing research, and the work of the joint UCLA-Berkeley California Policy Lab, which partners with state and local policymakers on research into homelessness, education and other critical social issues.
Sackman said LRW is also interested in diversifying its workforce, and so partnering with UCLA on this program seemed like a natural fit.
