In this talk I will illustrate my ideas and plans about the development of an undergraduate curriculum in the broader area of data science that includes, among other things, a course in image
processing. I will give an overview of the field, discuss typical problems that are studied within the discipline, and present an array of applications in medicine, astronomy, atmospheric science, security, navigation systems, and others: this will include a brief exposition of my own research in the recovery of images from videos affected by optical turbulence. I will be drawing ideas from my own experience in teaching courses and doing research with undergraduates at different academic institutions.