UCLA's New Undergraduate Major in "Data Theory"

UCLA has a new undergraduate major in Data Theory. Here is its catalog entry.

The video blurb about @UCLA's new undergraduate major (which I helped design) in "Data Theory" went live a week and a half ago, and I managed not to notice until now.

Here it is: https://t.co/iIZVPxUCK8

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) September 1, 2020

Update: Also see some hyperlinks in my previous blog entry about our new major.

Adventures With Old Caltech Catalogs

The 1974–1975 Caltech catalog was the first one to include the unit requirements for all* options in "modern" form (where "modern" means that's how it was when we arrived as frosh).

And in that catalog, Applied Math and Math required 483 units, and each of the other options required 516 units. (So then at some point that 516 was changed to 486. So Applied Math and Math were the pioneers!)

In prior years, each option (perhaps with some commonality due to influence of Divisions) essentially listed the requirements in their own format (occasionally including the modern format). Some of them listed required unit numbers (e.g., 530), but they were different for different options. Applied Math in 1973–74 required 537 units, but Math didn't list any one number in this format (though one could compute a minimum based on other types of requirements, such core courses, electives, and units per term). So somehow for 74–75, Applied Math and Math decided to be different from everybody else (naturally).

* except for the "Independent Studies Program", which is understandably much less structured in the catalog

Note: See this discussion for further background.

Note 2: I majored in Applied Math at Caltech. I graduated in 1998, and I first enrolled there during the 1994–95 school year.

This was really bugging me. Now I'll get back to what I was supposed to be doing.

Overly Honest Slogans For University Majors

These overly honest slogans for university majors are bloody awesome!

It's tough to pick a favorite, but right now I think the one for communications is perhaps the funniest. We'll have to make our own for mathematics, which didn't make the cut for this article.

I know I've seen a bunch of these before, so I also wonder if I have seen (or even posted on my blog?) this exact list before?

(Tip of the cap to George Takei.)