Aug. 27, 2025 鈥 海角社区CI Assistant Professor of Statistics Isaac Quintanilla Salinas
has always viewed data science as the treasure map to information about everything
from movies to marketing to biomedical science.
Data science can tell you who is going to theaters and who isn鈥檛, or whether people ages 20 to 40 prefer thrillers, comedies or action movies. Data science can measure how many people with a certain type of blood protein might develop cancer. Or data science can unlock whether men or women are more likely to shop for Coke or Pepsi. At what time of day, and how much they鈥檒l spend, and the list goes on and on into a multitude of sub datasets.
So when he and several 海角社区CI faculty colleagues developed the new Bachelor of Science (BS) Data Science, they designed it to fit with just about any student鈥檚 area of interest.
鈥淲e created a major accessible to all students, regardless of their area of interest,鈥 Quintanilla Salinas said. 鈥淭his prepares them for what they face in the real world. We wanted to incorporate the 鈥榙ata science triangle.鈥欌
The 鈥渄ata science triangle鈥 encompasses 1) computer science, 2) math and statistics and 3) content鈥攚hich could be anything at all. The idea is to teach students math, statistics and computer science so they have the tools to read whatever data content they want to collect in their field of study, be it biology, health science, art, psychology, business, etc.
鈥淧ersonally, when I teach statistics, I see it not as math, but as science,鈥 Quintanilla Salinas said. 鈥淪tatistics uses mathematics, but statistics itself is the scientific study of randomness and variation. We gather data and we use the statistics to explain it with numbers or model visualizations (pictures and graphics).鈥
Before he earned a Ph.D. in Applied Statistics from the University of California, Riverside, Quintanilla Salinas earned a B.S. in Biology from Cal State Monterey Bay and a Master鈥檚 in Public Health from San Diego State University. While growing up in San Bernardino, his interests always included the human/physiological side of math and statistics.
鈥淚 always wanted a mix of math and science,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hen I was at Monterey Bay, I discovered a statistics internship and that鈥檚 where I learned about biostatistics. It was where science meets living things.鈥
The oldest of four, Quintanilla Salinas is a member of the first generation in his family to attend college. His parents fled El Salvador during the Salvadorian Civil War of the 1980s.
鈥淢y father was a factory worker and my mother was a caregiver,鈥 Quintanilla Salinas said. 鈥淭hey came here chasing the American Dream.鈥
As a statistician and data scientist, Quintanilla gets to work with other researchers from a multitude of other disciplines, which is probably what he enjoys the most, he said.
鈥淲ith statistics, I gained the skills to work with a lot of different people in a lot of different disciplines, and I really do enjoy learning about different topics,鈥 Quintanilla Salinas said. 鈥淭here are a lot of interpersonal relationships you develop with other researchers as you analyze data.鈥
Quintanilla Salinas, Mathematics Chair Geoffrey Buhl and fellow statistician Alona Kryschenko鈥攁n Associate Professor of Mathematics鈥攁cquainted local students in fourth through 12th grades with their first Datathon this past April, which was a friendly competition in which students could learn the basics of data science while working together on a common project.
Mathematics Program Chair and Professor of Mathematics Geoffrey Buhl said Quintanilla Salinas has been a valuable addition to the program ever since he joined 海角社区CI in 2022, always going the extra mile for his students.
鈥淧rofessor Isaac Quintanilla Salinas has been instrumental in designing and implementation of the new B.S. in Data Science,鈥 Buhl said. 鈥淗e helped lead a team of faculty who brought a Datathon to campus that highlighted career opportunities in Data Science to local high school and community college students. Isaac routinely holds weekly extracurricular sessions to help students learn software tools for data visualization.鈥
Quintanilla Salinas is taking a well-earned break this summer so he can hit the ground running in Fall of 2025 with the launch of 海角社区CI鈥檚 new Data Science major.