Yes, this field is growing rapidly because
of what's happening is that
there's clearly a shortage just like --
if you can imagine maybe 10 years
 back or even 15 years back
there was a shortage of people
 who were good at engineering.
You see the same kind of trend 
happening in Data Science now
where you find people that
there are not enough people who
 understand how data works.
How to make sense of data.
What does data try to tell you.
I think that what we're seeing, 
particularly in the news with
a lot of discussion about
 the power of algorithms
and what is the role of
algorithms in society
is that these algorithms
are starting to move into this area of actually
making a lot of decisions for us
and so it's less about 
describing what's happening and
more about actually
 deciding what's happening.
What students are doing 
in the classroom is very similar
to what they will be
 doing in the workplace.
I think students recognize that almost immediately
when they start the program
and that gets them more excited.
So, the combination of being able to not just
jump to a finished product
but really kind of work hard on the problem itself
on your own or
 in a small group
and then see a range in solutions
really was the most beneficial
thing for me.
Making sure my class helps students advance
in their careers
and advance personally 
and professionally
is the most important goal
of my class.
And I encourage students to think of this
as their first portfolio piece,
or for students who already have a portfolio, 
as a new portfolio piece.
A way to show potential employers, 
a way to show other people
that they are able to build 
something that is insightful, that is clear,
that explains complicated issues in a way
 that people can understand them.
I feel like having a portfolio of your work
is really important especially if you want
to have some authority on an issue.
You want to be able to
 hand someone and demonstrate
" look, I've done this before" or 
"I know what I'm talking about" or
"How about we try this thing 
that I did over here?"
and I though a lot of 
the courses seem to be structured
around the idea of building portfolio projects
and working collaborately as much as possible.
It's practical implementations
 that you have to show,
that you have write code for 
and that's what the field demands.
You have to be able to write 
some sort of code
or do some sort of work in order to
 implement these tools in the field
and, with that, CUNY SPS, having to really
focus on the technical implementation,
I would not be nearly
as successful in being able to
actually take these tools 
and use them in a practical situation.
