Certificate in Data Analytics

Nowadays, massive amounts of data are available via the Internet, or they are stored in the companies’ databases. The main problem faced is how to leverage such data into information useful for decision making. The main purpose of this certificate is to help build the skills necessary to tackle this problem.

This certificate is meant for students having a previous background in computer science, engineering, business, or science, or students currently in their final year of such a degree, and who are interested in upgrading their skills to be able to analyze data in their field. High School graduates with industry experience are also welcome to this program. Students with no prior background may take it as well, but they should expect to take more time to complete it, as they will have to take a significant number of prerequisite courses in addition to the core program.

The certificate is composed of 3 required courses that form the basis of data analytics. The subjects covered in those required courses include: data storage into databases, SQL queries, statistical analysis through linear regression, and finally data visualization and data mining techniques so that raw data can be converted to information useful for decision making. In the 2 elective courses, the student can build further their knowledge in the area(s) of their choice, which make up the data analytics field: data acquisition and integration, data storage, data visualization, data mining, and statistics; including the current technologies used in industry.

General regulations

  1. Each person entering the program must have the approval of the Data Analytics Governance Committee (data_analytics@unb.ca)
  2. Only two of the five courses listed below for the certificate may be transferred from another degree or similar program. The DA 4993 project cannot be transferred.
  3. Normally a student must have grade 12 mathematics to enter the program. MATH 1863 may be taken as one of the optional courses in the certificate program by those students who do not have grade 12 mathematics from high school or feel that they are weak in the subject.
  4. To earn a certificate a student must successfully complete all required courses, elective courses, and the project, with a grade of C or better.

Requirements

  • 1 project (DA 4993), which should be an industry-related project or a research-related project, involving a large amount of data.

Note: students should also ensure that the prerequisite courses are passed. In particular, the following courses are prerequisites to the required courses above:

  1. CS 1073
  2. STAT 1793 and STAT 2793 (or one equivalent sequence: BA 1605/BA 2606, PSYC 2901/PSYC 3913)

Students with a prior degree in BScCS or BISc would have such prerequisites covered. Students with a prior degree in business, economics, biology, psychology (except BA major in psyc, with only PSYC 2901), mathematics, or statistics, would most probably have already the proper background in statistics (#2 above). Students with a prior degree in engineering (assuming STAT 2593 and CS 1003 already taken) would have to take STAT 2793 and CS 1073. Engineering students who have taken CS 1023 could take CS 2616 rather than CS 1073 (covering CS 1083 as well, which might be needed for some elective courses).

Further information may be obtained by contacting data_analytics@unb.ca.