​​Welcome​


Welcome to the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking.

Education and research in Data Science and Computational Thinking is at a pivotal moment in South Africa and Africa, in general. Data is created through multiple different ways and we have an opportunity to learn from this data to improve lives and build efficient economies. Data impacts all sectors of our economy. Stellenbosch University recognised the importance of these fields in South Africa's and Africa's development. It is with this thought that the University launched the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking in July 2019 with the vision,

to be a world-class institution for data science and computational thinking in and for Africa.

The University has existing strength in data science and computational thinking. Our world-class academics, researchers, PhD students and postdoctoral fellow have been using data to gain insights that make real societal impact. These range from health and genomic data to solve real health problems to agricultural data looking at land usage in Malawi. The University's reach and impact are found all over the continent.  

School's broad mandate includes strengthening the university's data science and computational thinking capabilities, to facilitate and coordinate collaborative learning and research projects across all the different disciplines that benefit both our academic and industry partners, and to build capacity in data science and computational thinking in South Africa, Africa and across the world.

Stellenbosch University and the School is an exciting place for data science and computational thinking with multiple and diverse points of innovation in this area. I invite you to explore the world-class Data Science and Computational Thinking programmes on offer at Stellenbosch University. Additionally, we launched the African Data Science Academy in June 2020 with short co​urses on offer in July 2020. I invite you to partner with us as we build learning and research capacity benefiting societies across the country and the continent.

 

Kanshukan Rajaratnam, PhD (Virginia)

Director: School for Data Science and Computational Thinking​