Northwest Nazarene University’s Department of Computer Science announced two new areas of concentration that will begin fall 2019 — cybersecurity and data science.

Students studying cybersecurity will be equipped with the skills needed to protect operating systems, networks, and data from cyberattacks. Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems to extract knowledge from voluminous data and is commonly correlated with artificial intelligence research and development.

“Students with bachelor's degrees in computer science are in such high demand that we cannot adequately fill all the available internships and employment opportunities,” said Barry Myers, professor of computer science and department chair. “Projected growth in cybersecurity and data science/AI jobs is huge, so adding these emphases to our existing, solid computer science curriculum makes sense.” 

NNU’s computer science students already have the opportunity to experience cutting-edge research that professors bring from outside labs into the classroom. Every computer science major actively engages in this research, with many students also participating in summer internships. Opportunities for undergrad participation in applied interdisciplinary computer science research are funded by NASA, NIH, the USDA, and the U.S. Forest Service.

“In NNU’s CS department, you will have small class sizes, emphasis on timely graduation, and opportunities to experience cutting edge research that professors bring from their labs into the classroom,” said Dale Hamilton, assistant professor of computer science. “Not to mention, we have the only data science/AI major in the northwest outside of Pac12 research institutions in Washington and Oregon. This concentration is an offshoot of the cutting-edge research being done at NNU in the development of interdisciplinary data science and artificial intelligence.”

--Northwest Nazarene University