Methods of Data Analysis and Business Forecasting

This course introduces the core data analysis (DA) techniques, algorithms, research issues and practical skills for applying DA techniques to solve real-world problems. Students will study the major data analysis problems as different types of computational tasks (prediction, classification, clustering, etc.) and the algorithms appropriate for addressing these tasks. Topics include data understanding and visual data exploration, data preprocessing and transforming, data classification and clustering, forecasting techniques etc. Students will understand principles and concepts; learn how to choose algorithms for different analysis tasks and get insight into DA techniques and algorithms. Students . Students are expected to do independent reading of research papers and to do critical review.