Fudan launches data science master's course
Technology is not only changing business and life, but also education.
The School of Management at Fudan University on Tuesday launched a new master’s program to cultivate talent specializing in both data science and business analysis, who can handle business in an age of fast-developing Internet, intelligent terminals and cloud storage.
“We are in an age of big data when every industry generates huge amount of data every day,” said Lu Xiongwen, dean of the school. “Data collection and storage is just the first step for big data, it’s more important to know how to analyze and use it. Mastering data-analyzing skills will help students remain competitive in the future. Therefore, we will prepare our students with the ability in this program and make them leaders in all industries. And, maybe, even lead the industrial development of the whole country.”
Zheng Ming, vice dean of the school, said students in the program will learn courses ranging from business statistical methods to business decision models and data management and mining technologies, so that they will be able to analyze complicated business data, solve problems and make decisions.
The two-year full-time program will see 40 percent of classes related to statistics, 30 percent related to management and another 30 percent related to computing and big data. Each student will have one mentor from the school and another from relevant industries to finish his or her dissertation.
The school plans to welcome its first batch of 40 to 50 students next year, but applicants will have to attend its summer camp in August this year to vie for the places.
The applicants should graduate from an undergraduate program next year with a solid foundation in maths and computer programming. It will be an advantage if they are excellent enough to be recommended by their universities to postgraduate programs without the unified national exam. But they will be tested by the school on maths and will also need to pass an interview.
