UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – For Penn State undergraduate student Yuya Ong, data sciences isn’t just his major — it’s a way of thinking about life.
“[I’m able to] understand and conceptualize the link between how humans develop an understanding of the world around them,” he said. “Data science is the generator that will leverage all of that from now and into the future.”
Born in Japan and raised in New Jersey, Ong originally intended to pursue a degree in computer science. But when he heard Penn State was launching an intercollege Data Sciences program, with an option in Applied Data Sciences offered by the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), he was immediately intrigued.
“I was more into the processes and data at first,” he explained. “What brought me to data sciences was getting a better understanding of the world around us. I wanted more hands-on learning and to become the bridge which unifies theory and practice together.”
As his time in the field grows, he now foresees the reach of big data touching every corner of the globe.
“We are creating a world where complexity increases exponentially as machines and computers take over more sophisticated tasks from humans,” he said.
Data sciences, he said, is unique in the way it’s able to fuse together computational analytics to find answers to humanity-driven, philosophical questions. Ong is already exploring these topics in his undergraduate research, in the research group of IST professor James Wang.
Said Wang, “[Ong] has been eager to learn about cutting-edge computing and statistical methods, and to apply them in tackling difficult real-world problems.”
Wang’s research, like many in the field, combines machine learning and algorithms to help innovate new technologies. He’s particularly interested in codifying emotions, a Herculean effort to help computers understand the complex world of humanity by classifying human responses to various stimuli.
“I’ve been interested in emotional analytics and understanding how someone feels and better leveraging those signals to improve human-computer interactions,” Ong said. “One of the research works I’ve been doing is how can we model the various spectrums of human emotions [through technology].”
Wang, who was “impressed by [Ong’s] passion in research and his technical readiness, [even] during the interview,” brought Ong on as a research assistant under a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project in the first semester of his freshman year.