Applied Data Analytics – (M.Sc.)

The amount of data generated and acquired by businesses and organisations every year is growing at an unprecedented rate. Automatic data acquisition and storage e.g. through website tracking, loyalty programs, industrial process monitoring or medical records have never been so cheap and easy. According to the IBM predictions, the amount of digital data in the world will double every 11 hours by the end of 2010. The new challenge the businesses and government/scientific/charitable organisations are now facing is how to utilise this data to its full potential and how to discover and extract knowledge in order to optimise their activities and use of resources, as well as gain a competitive edge. There is currently a big demand for skilful data analysts with the relevant expertise and knowledge of advanced tools and technologies.

In "Competing on analytics" by Davenport & Harris a categorisation of companies based on their application of business analytics was presented. The authors have also clearly quantified the impact of the applications of data analytics tools on the performance of the companies. In this manner it was for instance shown that companies located at the higher levels of the pyramid are significantly more likely to be high performers compared to companies, which operate without strong focus on business analytics. In particular, the advanced aspects of the intelligent data analysis and referring to the data analytics are considered as critical in the success of modern businesses, organisations and research institutions. This view has been confirmed by many recent market research reports and considerable investment in business and data analytics for instance by such companies as IBM in their heavily advertised and successful Smarter Planet initiative.

The aim of this course is to develop data and business analytics professional who can help their employers climb the pyramid of analytical literacy and to equip them with skills to gain competitive advantage based on analytical insight into the business, scientific and organisations´ data.

This course is cross disciplinary with a broad range of application areas. Graduates will be able to work as data analysts, consultants, business intelligence experts, data managers or progress to research in intelligent data analysis related R&D programmes. The course content will be research informed and delivered by the research active academics taking part in high profile projects funded, among others, by European Union and UK Research Councils as well carried out in collaboration with such partners as British Telecommunication, Lufthansa Systems, Evonik Industries, Screwfix Direct or NHS. Students on this course will have the opportunity to be involved in such research projects as part of their studies.