The College of Liberal Arts is developing a new undergraduate major focusing on data science to be housed under the department of psychology.

The department began developing the new major, which will be offered as a Bachelor of Science, as a part of their Behavioral Data Sciences Initiative. The department began work on their proposal for the major, which is due Feb. 1, about two years ago. The major teaches the interdisciplinary study of human behavior and data analytics.

“The world operates on data,” psychology professor Larry Cormack said. “There’s no way companies are ever going back to making decisions based on gut feelings, and the reason is simple. It’s because when you make decisions based on data, in the long run, those decisions are better decisions.”

Currently, the department of psychology offers foundational data sciences courses which will be requirements under the new major. Psychology associate professor James Curley said while elective data science courses focusing on subjects like machine learning and social network analysis exist, but he hopes to create more for the department in the future. 

“There’s lots of jobs out there that we anticipate will need these skills beyond what (students learn) in a psych degree,” Curley said. “Our goal is to teach students the programming side, the math skills and the statistics skills, but also how (to) design experiments, run experiments, and use this data in the real world. They’re in an advantageous position to get good jobs at the end of the degree.”

According to a December press release, the major aims to prepare students to work in entry-level data science jobs in fields including industry, government and research labs. Additionally, large companies like Facebook, Uber and Adobe want more graduates who understand how data and human behavior work together, psychology junior Mohammed Mehboob said. 

“(Computer science) and psychology are intertwined,” Mehboob said. “Now, you can’t do psychology without computer science, and if you’re interested in human behavior, you need to have computer science knowledge in some shape or form. Honestly, we all want to understand human behavior, so this is a very exciting field to get into right now.”

All new majors must go through the Faculty Council and the Texas Board of Education before they can be declared as an official degree, Curley said. 

“My crystal ball is very cloudy, especially when it comes to the workings of bureaucracies,” Cormack said.  “We’re not talking months, but we’re not talking many years either. So, I would hope students who are matriculating to UT next fall, at some point, would be able to join the major.”

In addition to the development of the major, the Department of Psychology offers various data science opportunities, including funded summer research internships, as a part of its initiative. 

“There’s data science everywhere,” Cormack said. “I think the market is there, (and) the student interest is there. All the stars are aligning to have this be a very successful major.”