DataSC
DATA SCIENCE CLUB OF
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
A student club built around three things: learning data science, building real projects, and the people you do it with.
We meet every Wednesday night. Any USC student can join, at any experience level.
What a Wednesday looks like
Every session has the same three parts, so you always know what you're walking into.
Curriculum session
Core data science concepts through hands-on lessons and technical workshops.
Cohort social
Take a break, play a game, get to know your cohort.
Project team time
Work with your team on a real-world project, with guidance from mentors.
The curriculum
Ten weeks, from your first DataFrame to a capstone project. No experience needed.
- Wk 01Intro to data science, the ML pipeline, Pandas basics
- Wk 02Python data structures, NumPy, Series and DataFrames, data I/O
- Wk 03Data cleaning: missing values, types, outliers, merges
- Wk 04Visualization with Matplotlib and Seaborn
- Wk 05Exploratory data analysis and feature engineering
- Wk 06Statistics: probability, sampling, hypothesis tests
- Wk 07scikit-learn, linear regression, cross-validation
- Wk 08Classification: logistic regression, k-NN, metrics
- Wk 09Unsupervised learning: K-Means and PCA
- Wk 10Capstone: analysis, modeling, presentation
Project teams
Fall 2026 project teams.
SafeShift: workplace injury early warning
Forecasting injury burden from U.S. occupational safety data.
GridShift NYC
Forecasting taxi and rideshare demand across NYC zones.
Sentiment analysis on COVID-19 over the years
How public discourse shifted across lockdowns, vaccines and reopenings.
Predicting deterioration in bilateral relations
Early warning signals before relations between countries break down.
News headlines and the stock market
Does headline sentiment move a company's stock price?
UMUD Challenge: muscle architecture in ultrasound
A Kaggle competition on automated ultrasound measurement.
Diabetes risk prediction
Interpretable models on 253,000+ CDC survey responses.
Group-based restaurant recommender
Finding restaurants that fit a whole group's taste.
Marketing strategy for USC Viterbi
Which marketing helps USC Viterbi increase its reach?
Spring 2026 teams after their final presentations.
This semester
Beyond Wednesdays: guest speakers, recruiting events, Kahoot competitions and game nights.
Kick Off Night
Meet your cohort and explore project teams at an escape room.
Pro Workshops & Headshots
Professional headshots and industry talks in data science, AI and analytics.
Overnight Club Retreat
A weekend of team building and workshops at Big Bear.
Final Project Showcase
Teams present to judges and compete for prizes. Formal wear, catered.
Data Recruiting Summit
Research talks, workshops, and time with industry recruiters.
The board, 2026–2027
Executive board
Natalie Lam Johnson
Co-President
Jaden Lin
Co-President
Ojas Nimase
Vice President
Anvitha Komarraju
Director of Operations
Theo Singkarin
Social Chair
Connor Mao
Finance
Danica Pham
Sponsorship & Outreach
Anh Phan
Sponsorship & Outreach
Nadeem Alabed
Graduate Recruitment Chair
Lauren Lu
Marketing
Curriculum
Emin Cilingiroglu
Curriculum Director
Aditi Kelkar
Curriculum Lead
Ryan Gaustad
Curriculum Lead
Samarth Hiremath
Curriculum Lead
Project leads
Aaron Lo
Project Lead
Abhishek Sarepaka
Project Lead
Allegra Chen
Project Lead
Ananya Hari
Project Lead
Dominic Woetzel
Project Lead
Edison Zhong
Project Lead
Ian Xie
Project Lead
Kyle Matsui
Project Lead
Trisha Tjokrosapoetro
Project Lead
Senior advisors
Matthew Hall
Senior Curriculum Advisor
Nathan Nguyen
Senior Curriculum Advisor
Claire He
Senior Advisor
Colin Quan Leung
Senior Advisor
Nolen Johnson
Senior Advisor
Selina Hui
Senior Advisor
Questions
Who can join?
Any USC student, regardless of major or experience level.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. The curriculum starts from the fundamentals.
How do project teams work?
Teams are formed by interest and skill balance, and work on scoped, real-world problems.
When do applications open?
At the start of each semester. Join our Slack to hear first.