February 16, 2021

Goucher College awarded $1M in total grants from the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund

Matched by alumnae/i contributions, the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund from the Maryland Department of Commerce has awarded Goucher College $1,000,000 in grants to support an endowed professorship in integrative data analytics.

Goucher College has received matching funds of $500,000 from the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund from the Maryland Department of Commerce for a total of $1,000,000 to support the endowed professorship in integrative data analytics. This new grant is in addition to the previous $500,000 grant received from the same fund in 2020, and both grants have been matched by alumnae/i donations. 

This data science faculty position will support Goucher’s new integrative data analytics major and lead programming to develop students’ skills that can be applied to data analytics in local, state, and federal governmental agencies, as well as with non-profit organizations and local and global corporations.

“This matching grant, which brings the state’s total support to $1,000,000, further recognizes the innovation and importance of Goucher’s new integrative data analytics program and the long-term impact it will have on our students and the region,” said Kent Devereaux, Goucher College president. “We are grateful to the state and the Maryland Department of Commerce for their ongoing support that will allow us to fund the endowed professorship fully.”

Through the new endowed professorship in integrative data analytics, Goucher students will be taught to analyze economic trends, social media monitoring, demographics, geographic information systems, medical records, public health data, image recognition, environmental modeling, financial transactions, market research, and much more. Goucher students will graduate with the ability to analyze large, robust data sets with an ever-present human and ethical focus, a perspective that Goucher College has a unique ability to provide.

“This grant will allow us to hire faculty experts in the emerging field of data science,” said Phong Le, associate professor of mathematics at Goucher College. “Another colleague in data science will give us greater capacity to develop integrative and cross-disciplinary experiences for our students. By the fall, we will have a new colleague who will contribute to our new integrative data analytics students.”

Read more about Goucher’s integrative data analytics program here.