The University of Navarra will launch this year an owndegree scroll in Big Data. It is coordinated by the Science Unit of the University of Navarra's data Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra in partnership with the School of Economics and the participation of other centers, such as Sciences or the School of Engineering-TECNUN.

"More and more companies and organizations require professionals with knowledge of Big Data. This degree scroll is born as a response to that demand: it offers technical and specific contents and, at the same time, very practical", explains Full Professor Jesús López Fidalgo, director of the Science Unit of data of the ICS and director of the program.

It will begin in January and end in June 2018, and is aimed at professionals, university graduates and final year students of Degree. It is intended for a broad audience and, therefore, no advanced knowledge of programming or statistics is required to take it. However, a predisposition to work in computing environments, use of algorithms and basic analysis of data is recommended.

Students will learn to work with tools such as Python, R, SQL, Java or Tableau, among others. "They will receive a very technical training of tools that are useful, both for the collection of data and for their analysis, interpretation and visualization," notes López Fidalgo.

Epidemics, natural disasters and energy conservation

Regarding academic staff, he indicates that "he comes from several prestigious companies and institutions, with extensive experience in these tools. He will show how to use them in real situations and how to apply them in different fields".

"Today," he adds, "we have the capacity to collect a lot of data, both from the network, as well as from the operation of a business or its customers. Processing that information properly leads to optimizing processes and making decisions that increase profitability."

As examples of uses, he mentions that "knowing the subject of purchases made by users allows us to offer them what they need at any given moment with a high degree of precision and to facilitate their purchase. It is marketing, but it is also a service to Username". And Big Data also makes possible issues such as "foreseeing possible epidemics or pandemics to act at the right time, even other natural disasters" or "detecting energy saving strategies based on the particular use of users", concludes the researcher of the ICS.