ITM 880NTp:Business Analytics Applied

This course elaborately discusses Business Analytics, a rapidly emerging field that considers the extensive use of data, models, methods, and tools to improve the decision making process. This course equips students with the skills needed for jobs in analytics-driven organizations. Students will explore the role data analytics plays in attaining competitive advantage in organizations, through data-driven evaluation of alternatives and gaining insight from past performance. The course will include hands-on work with data and software. Topics to be covered include data manipulation, descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics (optimization). The class will be conducted with a combination of lectures, case discussions, lab sessions, a guest speaker, and student presentations. Grading will be based on problem sets, case reports, and a final project.