Newton's Lasell College Partners With Google On Pilot Program

NEWTON, MA — Lasell College just became one of 10 colleges across the country - and the only one in the Greater Boston area - to partner with Google on a computer and data science course collaboration.

The pilot collaboration comes in response to a report about a scarcity of computer science faculty nationwide, according to Google.

Lasell is one of a handful of colleges to pilot Google's Applied Computing Series, a two college-level introductory computer science and data science courses and a machine learning intensive. The goal of the program is to help students understand how to use the best available tools to manipulate and understand data and then solve critical business problems, according to Google.

A Lasell professor happened to develop a relationship with Google and through that relationship came this opportunity, Lasell officials told Patch.

Students review, study and practice material Google has developed for them outside of the classroom before heading into the classroom setting to work on team projects coached by Lasell faculty who help bring concepts to life.

According to Lasell College President Michael Alexander, this collaboration expands on the school's goal of giving students real world, professional-level experiences.

"This partnership reinforces our connected learning approach of merging traditional educational methodologies with opportunities for active learning through internships, service initiatives, and challenging projects, both inside and outside the classroom," said Alexander.

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/ Patch Staff