The Major

The Bachelor of Science in Informatics provides a solid foundation for students who wish to apply computing to solve real-world problems that arise in numerous other domains such as health sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, and business. The program is built upon a core of nine informatics courses (total credits 31), three or four concentration courses (total credits 9-14), and six elective courses chosen from a prescribed list (total credits 18-22). The health and life sciences concentration also includes an ethics requirement.

The core courses provide the required computing knowledge and include two foundational courses, two programming courses, two courses on data analysis and statistical thinking, two courses on human and societal aspects of computing, and a course that satisfies the Integrative Experience (IE) requirement.

The concentration courses teach the student how to apply computing knowledge to a chosen domain of concentration. Currently, the program provides two concentrations: a data science concentration that teaches students how to collect, analyze and derive insights from large amounts of data that arise in the context of a wide range of real-world application domains; and a health and life sciences concentration that brings together four major areas relevant to human health where computation and data play a foundational role.

Requirements

Core Informatics Courses

  1. INFO 101 Introduction to Informatics (or AP Computer Science Principles Exam)
  2. INFO 150 A Mathematical Foundation for Informatics
  3. COMPSCI 121 Introduction to Problem Solving with Computers (or AP Computer Science A Exam)
  4. COMPSCI 186 Using Data Structures (or equivalent)
  5. INFO 203 A Networked World
  6. STAT 240 Introduction to Statistics (Also accept OIM 240 Business Data Analysis; PSYCH 240 Statistics in Psychology; SOCIOL 212 Elem Statistics; or RES-ECON 212 Intro Stats/SocSci)
  7. INFO 248 Introduction to Data Science
  8. COMPSCI 325 Introduction to Human Computer Interaction
  9. COMPSCI 326 Web Programming

Concentration Courses (Data Science Concentration)

  1. CICS 397A Predictive Analytics in Python
  2. COMPSCI 345 Practice and Applications of Data Management
  3. Choose one course from the following:
    • STAT 501 Methods of Applied Statistics (Also accept STATS 515; STATS 516)
    • OIM 350 Business Intelligence and Analytics

Concentration Courses (Health and Life Sciences Concentration)

  1. INFO 390W Introduction to Clinical Health Informatics
  2. One of the following two courses: (Both courses have the introductory biology sequence [BIOL 151 & 152] as a prerequisite)
    • BIO 379H Genomics and Bioinformatics
    • BIOL 597G Evolutionary Genomics & Bioinformatics
  3. One of the following two courses:
    • PUBHLTH 490Z Statistical Modeling for Health Data Science
    • PUBHLTH 460 Telling Stories with Data: Statistics Modeling and Visualization
  4. COMPSCI 328 Mobile Health Sensing and Analytics
  5. Ethics requirement: Choose one of the following courses
    • PHIL 160 Introduction to Ethics or PHIL 160H Intro to Ethics (Honors)
    • PHIL 164 Medical Ethics of PHIL 164H Medical Ethics (Honors)
    • COMPSCI 508 Ethical Considerations in Computer Science
    • PUBHLTH 497 Research Ethics
    • HISTORY 264 History of HealthCare and Medicine in the U.S.

Elective Courses

Six elective courses are to be chosen from a prescribed list. See the college website for further guidance as to exactly which courses may be used as electives.

General Education Requirements

Informatics majors must fulfill the university’s Junior Year Writing requirement by taking CICS 305 Social Issues in Computing.  Double majors for whom Informatics is the secondary major may use the Junior Year Writing requirement course from their primary major to fulfill this requirement.  Students whose primary major is Informatics must satisfy the General Education Integrative Experience. Currently, COMPSCI 326 Web Programming satisfies this requirement, and it also counts as a core course for the major. In addition, informatics majors must satisfy other general education requirements required by the university.

Total credits requirement

A total of 120 credit hours are needed for the informatics degree, requiring additional coursework worth 34 to 37 credits. These courses may be used to obtain expertise in the student’s application domain of interest.

Residency

Two of the four concentration courses and four of the six electives that satisfy the informatics major requirements must be taken at UMass Amherst.

Informatics Program Notes

No course taken on a Pass/Fail basis may be used for any major requirements, including core, concentration, and elective requirements. Students must achieve a grade point average of at least 2.00 in all courses used for major requirements. Courses with grades below C may not be used as prerequisites and should be repeated for a new grade.  Seminar courses (x91) and independent studies (x96) at the 300-level (or above) are reviewed for elective credit via the independent study approval process.  Informatics majors wanting to add another major may not seek both majors within CICS, although Informatics majors may pursue a minor in Computer Science. 

See the ‘Getting Started’ tab to learn more about joining this major
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