The art of uncovering the insights and trends in data has been around since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians used census data to increase efficiency in tax collection and they accurately predicted the flooding of the Nile river every year. Since then, people working in data science have carved out a unique and distinct field for the work they do, this field is data science.

Data Science and big data refer to manipulating data using algorithmic and mathematic methods to solve problems which are complex in an analytical proceed. This covers the scope of techniques and tools in dealing with various types of data. This discipline is considered a major asset from a business point of view. The great influence that the practitioners from this field possess on the layman is that data is being easily converted into information and knowledge that they can understand.

Data Science and big data inter-relates with disciplines such as Information Engineering, Applied Science and Business.

Courses provided to students in data science and big data cover topics such as databases and relational algebra, visual data analytics, different types of machine learning, visual encodings and statistical rigor.

Students in this field acquire solid mathematical skills with an advantage of business strategic thinking.

Data Science and big data analytics is an 'open' course that provides an introduction to big data and the Data Analytics Lifecycle to address business challenges that leverage big data. The course provides grounding in basic and advanced analytic methods and an introduction to big data analytics technology and tools, including MapReduce and Hadoop.