A Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) is an interdisciplinary STEM graduate professional degree that blends concepts from data science, computer science, statistics, business intelligence, and information theory geared towards commercial applications. Students generally come from a variety of backgrounds including computer science, engineering, mathematics, economics, and business. University programs mandate coding proficiency in at least one language. The languages most commonly used include R, Python, SAS, and SQL. Applicants generally have technical proficiency before starting the program. Analytics concentrations in MBA programs are less technical and focus on developing working knowledge of statistical applications rather than proficiency. [1]
Business analytics (BA) refers to the skills, technologies, practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. [1] Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods. In contrast, business intelligence traditionally focuses on using a consistent set of metrics to both measure past performance and guide business planning, which is also based on data and statistical methods. Business analytics can be used to leverage prescriptive analytics towards automation.
The MSBA was a response to the increasing need of complex data analysis beyond traditional use of spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. Since 2001, the increasing volume (amount of data), velocity (speed of data in and out), and variety (range of data types and sources) has created a vacuum for talent. [2] Harvard Business Review noted: “Much of the current enthusiasm for big data focuses on technologies that make taming it possible, including Hadoop (the most widely used framework for distributed file system processing) and related open-source tools, cloud computing, and data visualization,” the article says. “While those are important breakthroughs, at least as important are the people with the skill set (and the mind-set) to put them to good use. On this front, demand has raced ahead of supply. Indeed, the shortage of data scientists is becoming a serious constraint in some sectors.” [3]
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines to applied disciplines.
Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. One well known subject classification system for computer science is the ACM Computing Classification System devised by the Association for Computing Machinery.
The Graduate Management Admission Test is a computer adaptive test (CAT) intended to assess certain analytical, quantitative, verbal, and data literacy skills for use in admission to a graduate management program, such as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. Answering the test questions requires reading comprehension, and mathematical skills such as arithmetic, and algebra. The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) owns and operates the test, and states that the GMAT assesses critical thinking and problem-solving abilities while also addressing data analysis skills that it believes to be vital to real-world business and management success. It can be taken up to five times a year but no more than eight times total. Attempts must be at least 16 days apart.
Financial engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving financial theory, methods of engineering, tools of mathematics and the practice of programming. It has also been defined as the application of technical methods, especially from mathematical finance and computational finance, in the practice of finance.
Data engineering refers to the building of systems to enable the collection and usage of data. This data is usually used to enable subsequent analysis and data science, which often involves machine learning. Making the data usable usually involves substantial compute and storage, as well as data processing.
Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data, which also falls under and directly relates to the umbrella term, data science. Analytics also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It can be valuable in areas rich with recorded information; analytics relies on the simultaneous application of statistics, computer programming, and operations research to quantify performance.
SAS is a statistical software suite developed by SAS Institute for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, criminal investigation, and predictive analytics. SAS' analytical software is built upon artificial intelligence and utilizes machine learning, deep learning and generative AI to manage and model data. The software is widely used in industries such as finance, insurance, health care and education.
The Yale School of Management is the graduate business school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Administration (MBA), MBA for Executives (EMBA), Master of Advanced Management (MAM), Master's Degree in Systemic Risk (SR), Master's Degree in Global Business & Society (GBS), Master's Degree in Asset Management (AM), and Ph.D. degrees, as well as joint degrees with nine other graduate programs at Yale University.
Data and information visualization is the practice of designing and creating easy-to-communicate and easy-to-understand graphic or visual representations of a large amount of complex quantitative and qualitative data and information with the help of static, dynamic or interactive visual items. Typically based on data and information collected from a certain domain of expertise, these visualizations are intended for a broader audience to help them visually explore and discover, quickly understand, interpret and gain important insights into otherwise difficult-to-identify structures, relationships, correlations, local and global patterns, trends, variations, constancy, clusters, outliers and unusual groupings within data. When intended for the general public to convey a concise version of known, specific information in a clear and engaging manner, it is typically called information graphics.
Business analytics (BA) refers to the skills, technologies, and practices for iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods. In contrast, business intelligence traditionally focuses on using a consistent set of metrics to both measure past performance and guide business planning. In other words, business intelligence focusses on description, while business analytics focusses on prediction and prescription.
The Wake Forest University School of Business is the business school of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It offers undergraduate programs to around 1,314 students, as well as management-related masters programs. The school is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and has supplemental accounting accreditation by the latter agency. It has a second campus in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) is a cross-functional organizational team with defined tasks, roles, responsibilities and processes for supporting and promoting the effective use of Business Intelligence (BI) across an organization.
Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with higher complexity may lead to a higher false discovery rate.
Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs. The growth of online learning since the 1990s, particularly in higher education, has contributed to the advancement of Learning Analytics as student data can be captured and made available for analysis. When learners use an LMS, social media, or similar online tools, their clicks, navigation patterns, time on task, social networks, information flow, and concept development through discussions can be tracked. The rapid development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) offers additional data for researchers to evaluate teaching and learning in online environments.
Quantitative analysis is the use of mathematical and statistical methods in finance and investment management. Those working in the field are quantitative analysts (quants). Quants tend to specialize in specific areas which may include derivative structuring or pricing, risk management, investment management and other related finance occupations. The occupation is similar to those in industrial mathematics in other industries. The process usually consists of searching vast databases for patterns, such as correlations among liquid assets or price-movement patterns.
The Tepper School of Business is the business school of Carnegie Mellon University. It is located in the university's 140-acre (0.57 km2) campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from potentially noisy, structured, or unstructured data.
Morten Middelfart is an American serial entrepreneur, inventor, and technologist. He is known for inventing the Lumina Analytics Radiance AI platform, as well as the TARGIT software for business intelligence and analytics. Middelfart is currently the founder/Chief Data Scientist of Lumina Analytics, Advisory CIO of Genomic Expression and founder of Social Quant. Middelfart holds seven U.S. patents for his work in business intelligence and analytics software.
Yaniv Altshuler, is an Israeli computer scientist and entrepreneur. He is a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, at the Human Dynamics group headed by professor Alex Pentland.
The Center of Applied Data Science (CADS) is a private company established in Malaysia in October 2015.