Semester 1

Consulting for Analytics
You will learn the craft and skills required by analytic consultants, and which employers look for but often find lacking.  It will cover process aspects of analytics projects, as well as skills in client interaction, problem structuring and data elicitation (with individuals and/or groups, and with hard/soft data), presenting data-driven analyses, report writing, and developing simple bespoke decision support systems.  

Discovery Analytics
You will be introduced to common statistical methods to explore and visualise cross sectional and temporal data. You will also learn about the design and conduct of data collection efforts, together with methods for dealing with data outliers and missing data. Industry-leading tools that are in high demand from employers (e.g. SAS and SPSS) will be used.

Decision Analytics 
Your will be introduced to common operational research techniques to help determine the best course of action for a given decision or problem. Topics covered include optimisation, simulation and decision and risk analysis.

Managing Big Data 
Your will learn about the challenges and opportunities derived from the increased volume, variety, velocity and value of data that is available today. A range of big data topics will be covered including data type, data integration, data technologies, and data security. 

Semester 2

Customer Analytics
You will focus on analytics techniques that can help organisations gain a deeper insight into customers’ behaviour and attitudes towards their products and services. It will cover approaches designed to provide a profile of customer segments, such as those grounded in data mining and multivariate statistical analysis. Industry-leading tools that are in high demand from employers (e.g. SAS and SPSS) will be used. There is an IBM sponsored student prize on this module. 

Leading Analytics Initiatives
You will learn about the issues associated with implementing an analytics capability in organisations. It will cover topics on how to develop an analytics strategy, how to embed analytics in organisational processes to ensure they deliver value, and how to deploy analytics throughout the organisation to improve decision making. There is an IBM sponsored student prize on this module. 

Operations Analytics
You will focus on analytics techniques that can help organisations to develop a better understanding of operational processes, and identify efficiency and cost reduction opportunities. Topics covered include advanced optimisation and simulation techniques. 

Policy and Strategy Analytics 
You will focus on analytics techniques designed to tackle complex policy and strategic issues. It will cover approaches designed to explain the behaviour of complex social systems or assess the consequences of complex decisions, in order to provide the levers for policy and strategy making in a variety of sectors.

Summer 

Consulting or Research Project