February 5, 2026
Taylen Inthisane (SCI ’25) needed a change.
At first, he began looking into further education to find a way to better himself as a financial analyst. However, he realized he no longer enjoyed working in finance.
“I knew that my career in finance was done just because I don’t have any passion for it,” Inthisane said. “I hit my ceiling, so I was looking around on Coursera and saw the data science degrees that they offer.”
Inthisane was originally interested in getting a degree from a Michigan institution, since it’s where he lives, but he didn’t want to complete an admissions letter, nor did he have anyone to write him a letter of recommendation for data science. He saw Pitt’s Master of Data Science (MDS) program only required passing the performance-based admissions (PBA) course with a B or higher and proof of a bachelor’s degree.
“So I was like, ‘I might as well just gamble on myself to do that and get it,’” Inthisane said.
As a program director and educator teaching future paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians, Charles “Chuck” Allias (SCI ’25) is constantly looking at data, particularly test scores. After changing to a flipped classroom format back in 2016, he noticed a large increase in students who passed modular exams and the National Registry cognitive exam.
“I’ve been out analyzing data since I’ve been a program director for the last 20-some years,” Allias said. “It was just without formal training. My wife saw this program and said ‘this might be something you’d be interested in.’ I did the entry level course, passed that, and the rest is history.”
Allias and Inthisane both graduated with the MDS program’s first graduating class in Fall 2025. The 44 graduates were part of the very first cohort of the PBA course, Data-centric Computing, launched in summer 2024.
Not having any previous programming experience, Allias and Inthisane needed to put a lot of effort into the PBA course.
“It was such a change of pace coming from more of a finance and accounting background that it was a lot of time,” Inthisane said. “I would say that was one of the most time-consuming courses I’ve ever taken throughout both my college experiences, but it definitely paid off. There’s so much information that you can learn from that course.”
Once the PBA course built the foundational knowledge for the MDS curriculum, the courses became less intense for them.
“I thought, ‘if this continues throughout the next year, year and a half, I don’t know if I have the bandwidth to do this for the whole time,’ but it did get easier,” Allias said. “I think it was just that first time for me trying to understand everything and put it into terms that I could understand that made it a little bit more challenging for me at first.”
After passing the PBA course, Allias and Inthisane were fully accepted into the program. Over the course of approximately a year and a half, they completed the 30 credits required for the MDS, taking courses in responsible data science, applied predictive modeling, and more.
“The curriculum was fantastic,” Inthisane said. “There’s definitely some courses that were a little bit more frustrating, but I feel like the frustrating ones I learned the most out of.”
When Allias and Inthisane had questions and needed help, they met with professors during office hours or read through threads on the student Slack channel.
“Some people knew a lot more about coding than I did, but everyone was willing to help and give advice or give assistance to each other,” Allias said.
The capstone course, in which students complete a final project, is the last step before earning the MDS degree. Inthisane’s capstone project was on ICU patients and reducing the length of stay of patients and mortality of patients.
“While difficult, the course taught me a great deal,” Inthisane said. “Having never completed a data science project before, the capstone was a major shift from my previous work and helped me understand real-world expectations in the field.”
With their MDS degrees now in their hands, both Allias and Inthisane hope to move into data science-related roles. Allias wants to stay in higher education if possible, or work in healthcare or emergency medical services if something is available. He’s open to pivoting to other fields to do data science though, particularly in relation to AI and machine learning.
“I really enjoy the AI part of [data science] and machine learning,” Allias said. “I think it’s going to play a role in everybody’s life, and I think the more we can understand, the more we can educate students, teachers, staff, and everybody how it can be an integral part and not be afraid of it. But again, I think we have to be cautious. We have to be good stewards of our data. We need to make sure that the information we’re giving these AI agents is also good data, [that] it’s not biased, it’s not harmful to people.”
Inthisane is currently working on his portfolio and seeing what data science jobs are out there. With his brother, mother, and father all in medical fields, he would ideally like to get a data science job in the medical field. However, he’s open to data science jobs in other fields to gain experience, exploring remote job options and potentially moving.
“Right now, I’m just taking it as is and seeing what’s available,” Inthisane said. “I’m mainly taking it one step at a time.”
To those thinking about taking the PBA course, both Allias and Inthisane say to go for it.
“It gets you the exposure to what you should expect in data science and gets you a good foot in the doorway for it,” Inthisane said.
Though Allias hadn’t left the classroom, switching from teacher to student wasn’t easy. Flexibility, support, and time management were essential for completing the PBA course.
“Going back to school was not easy, especially being married, having two kids, and dealing with all the extra things that happen in life,” Allias said. “You just have to keep moving and try to find time. If you’re willing to learn and you’re willing to seek out help, I say go for it, without a doubt.”
Learn more about the Master of Data Science and more of Allias’ learning journey on the Coursera blog.