The Geodata Science Program at Purdue

Employers seek in today’s advanced Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics workforce skills in analytics and data science, including Big Data (Denecke, D. et al. 2017, Council of Graduate Schools). In the United States, geoscience curricula are in general not designed to capitalize on the digital revolution, especially the enormous growth in data science.  There has been a disconnect between the jobs of the future and the curricula of the present.  Data science is highly technical and requires rigorous preparation in mathematics, statistics and computing skills. Specifically, in the context of geosciences, data science applied with the goal of improving understanding of causal relations in the physical system also promotes better predictions, therefore risk assessments.

In response to the Purdue campus-wide data-science initiatives and the College of Science strategic plan, EAPS is prioritizing data-science training, with applications to climate, weather forecasting, environmental science, natural resource, and energy data for decision-support or decision-making in the public and private sectors. In the process, the EAPS personnel will engage in campus-wide interdisciplinary data-driven research.  A key outgrowth of this initiative is the EAPS MS Concentration of Geodata Science for Professionals (GDSP), integrating rigorous academic coursework, high-performance big data-science computing environments such as Hadoop systems and GPU computing, with real-life research and work experiences.

GDSP Program 2020-2021 Recruiting Flyer

Spring 2020 Application Full Submission Deadline: October 15, 2019

Fall 2020 Application Full Submission Deadline: March 15, 2020

Spring 2021 Application Full Submission Deadline: October 15, 2020

GDSP Program - Student Brochure

GDSP Program - Industry Brochure

GDSP Advisory Committee

• Dr. Wen-wen Tung, Associate Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Program Director, Contact: wwtung@purdue.edu
• Dr. Robert Nowack, Professor of Geophysics, Program Faculty Coordinator
• Dr. Michael Baldwin, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences
• Dr. John Cushman, University Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science
• Dr. Dan Chavas, Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Sciences
• Dr. Alexander Gluhovsky, Professor of Statistics and Atmospheric Sciences
• Dr. Matthew Huber, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences
• Dr. Doug Schmitt, Professor and Stephen and Karen Brand Endowed Chair of Unconventional Energy

Administrative Assistant

• Mr. W. Logan Downing, Personal Github, Contact: wdownin@purdue.edu