It has been said that “data is the new oil” of the 21st century. However, like oil, data are useless and meaningless in their raw state. We need to know how to transition from data to knowledge through analysis of relationships in the data so that to further support our decision-making processes. The unit Data Science & Analytics provides integrated methods for understanding, visualizing and managing information resources, interpreting statistics, and developing practical decision models. In this way, the unit intends to strengthen and support the informational and statistical literacy of students.

The unit covers the essential elements of data science: summarizing and visualizing data, utilizing basic ideas of statistical inference, and machine learning. Students will gain hands-on experience using the MATLAB programming language. This course can be viewed as a hybrid between a statistics course focusing on estimation and inference and a computing course focused on algorithms and using ready-made programs. The studies will help students to combine technical and statistical skills, analytical thinking and specialist discipline knowledge.