Foundations of Data Science
Graduate Certificate
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The Graduate Certificate in Foundations of Data Science provides focused training that will prepare you to pursue a full graduate degree or expand your current career. It may also equip you with the skills necessary to combine multiple graduate credentials.
Through this program, you will learn skills and best practices for leveraging modern programming languages. Through comprehensive training in data collection, exploration, manipulation, storage and analysis you will graduate with the skills and experience to tackle complex data challenges.
The Foundations of Data Science Graduate Certificate also provides you with credits and experience that are directly transferable into the MS in Data Science. Learn more about the MS in Data Science.
Applicants are expected to have completed undergraduate coursework in programming and statistics. Coursework in calculus is preferred but not required. The application will have two explicit questions asking to list coursework or professional experience that demonstrates strong quantitative and analytical reasoning abilities as well as experience with math and programming, including data structures, analysis of algorithms, and linear algebra.
*Residents of some U.S. Territories may not be eligible. Please see our Eligibility & State Authorization page for more information.
This program consists of three required courses:
Gain an understanding of the intractable and pressing ethical issues as well as related policies in the information fields. Emerging technological developments in relation to public interests and individual well-being are highlighted throughout the course. Special emphasis is placed on case studies and outcomes as well as frameworks for ethical decision making.
This course will introduce you to the concepts and techniques of data mining for knowledge discovery. It includes methods developed in the fields of statistics, large-scale data analytics, machine learning, pattern recognition, database technology and artificial intelligence for automatic or semi-automatic analysis of large quantities of data to extract previously unknown interesting patterns. Topics include understanding varieties of data, data preprocessing, classification, association and correlation rule analysis, cluster analysis, outlier detection, and data mining trends and research frontiers.
This course provides an overview of the various concepts and skills required for effective data visualization. It presents principles of graphic design, programming skills, and statistical knowledge required to build compelling visualizations that communicate effectively to target audiences.
Outcomes
Skills
Earning your Graduate Certificate in Foundations of Data Science will build core skills, including:
- Data visualization
- Data analysis
- Communication
- Teamwork/collaboration
- Data collection
- Data exploration
- Data manipulation
- Data processing
- Data storage
- Data preservation
- Algorithmic thinking and doing
- Database development and management
- Machine learning and natural language processing
- Data science-related ethical concerns
- Data science-related societal impacts
Potential Career Paths
Graduates of the Foundations of Data Science Certificate program will be prepared to pursue careers in the following fields:
