BN518 Master of Science in Computing (Business Intelligence & Data Mining Stream)

neil_hiss_a_gum

Hi Has anyone here done this course? If so looking for feedback on it.
Thanks!

TestLink

From the ITB website, it is shown that the schedule for "Master of Science in Computing (Business Intelligence & Data Mining Stream)" is online while for "Master of Science in Computing (Information Security & Digital Forensics)" the schedule is Tuesday and Wednesday 6pm - 10pm and Online. Last year I got admission to the later, but didnt join because of difficulty with the time schedule.

Any idea whether the students have to attend classes for Business Intelligence & Data Mining Stream or it is done entirely online?

Parawind

ITguru wrote: »

From the ITB website, it is shown that the schedule for "Master of Science in Computing (Business Intelligence & Data Mining Stream)" is online while for "Master of Science in Computing (Information Security & Digital Forensics)" the schedule is Tuesday and Wednesday 6pm - 10pm and Online. Last year I got admission to the later, but didnt join because of difficulty with the time schedule.

Any idea whether the students have to attend classes for Business Intelligence & Data Mining Stream or it is done entirely online?

I am doing the Information Security & Digital Forensics stream, no Business Intelligence & Data Mining Stream ran last year because of a lack of numbers, so this year will be the first year it runs as far as i know. At last years open evening the lecturers in charge of the Business Intelligence & Data Mining Stream said that it could be done completely online, in classes or a balance of both depending on what more people perfered.

If i remember correctly its run by Geraldine Gray, she will be able to tell you more about it if you send here an e-mail to: Geraldine.gray@itb.ie
I had her as a lecturer for my undergraduate and shes very nice and i'm sure she'll be able to help you out.

TestLink

Thanks Parawind...

MartinAnt

Parawind wrote: »

no Business Intelligence & Data Mining Stream ran last year because of a lack of numbers, so this year will be the first year it runs as far as i know.

Hi,

Do you mean this is the first year that this will be done as a part time course, first time done via distance learning, or the first time the course will be done at all? I was under the impression this course has been run before? I am also interested in this course so would like to hear if this is indeed the first run or not.

Cheers,
MartinAnt

Parawind

I believe its the first time to be run at all, BN518 was only started last year and as far as i know the Information Security & Digital Forensics stream was the only one to run so far.

jfh

i was interested in doing this course last year too but relocated down the country so didn't suit, as far as i know, the course didn't go ahead due to lack of numbers.
i'm kinda hesitent about forking out 3000 for a course that's going online for the first year. anyone else feel the same or do you reckon i'm too cautious. trying to decide.

TestLink

jfh wrote: »

i was interested in doing this course last year too but relocated down the country so didn't suit, as far as i know, the course didn't go ahead due to lack of numbers.
i'm kinda hesitent about forking out 3000 for a course that's going online for the first year. anyone else feel the same or do you reckon i'm too cautious. trying to decide.

Hi jfh,
Do you know any other Masters in Computing/IT course (part time / online) with fees less than 3000, excluding Trinity?
Last year the fees for BN518 was 2500. So sooner you do, the cheaper the fees.

At Trinity there are a couple of courses with fees falling around 2500 range.
http://www.scss.tcd.ie/Fees_1011.php

1. TRS18 MSc Health Informatics 2,500
2. TRS52 MSc in Computer Science
(Networks and Distributed Systems) 2,500
3. TRS55 MSc in Computer Science
(Interactive Entertainment Technology) 2,500
4. TRS53 MSc in Computer Science
(Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing) 2,500
5. TRS54 MSc Technology and Learning 2,500
6. TRS51 MSc Interactive Digital Media 2,500

I tried for MSc Health Informatics, but didnt get through. Though later I came to know that there is not much scope or it here.

jfh

thanks for the feedback ITguru, my concern was enrolling in a course that was in it's first year. i'd prefer if the teething problems were already sorted.
know what you mean about the fees though, i thought they would be going down rather than up but i suppose more people are applying.
i've emailed the college to get more info, and if i can relate it to my job, i'm def interested.
you interested in doing this yourself?

TestLink

Still thinking about it!
I got confirmation that the course would be entirely online (though contact classes could be arranged if the class request it), which I prefer.

neil_hiss_a_gum

jfh wrote: »

thanks for the feedback ITguru, my concern was enrolling in a course that was in it's first year. i'd prefer if the teething problems were already sorted.
know what you mean about the fees though, i thought they would be going down rather than up but i suppose more people are applying.
i've emailed the college to get more info, and if i can relate it to my job, i'm def interested.
you interested in doing this yourself?

I share your concerns alright - the website doesnt exactly clear things up either. There is a lot of mention about research trends and independant research - would like to know exaclty how technical the course is and what level of data mining expertise would one expect to acquire by course completion.
Any thoughts?

jfh

hi neil_hiss_a_gum, from what i understand there's no programming involved, yes i think a lot is independant research, i'm not working in business intelligence so not sure if i would get to grips without practical experience.
you the same?

neil_hiss_a_gum

Hi JFH Yeah I am not in BI or data mining area at the moment- am just interested in this area - I think the data mining could be very interesting and also be an area of high demand in the future. Ideally I'd like to become proficient in this area - would be hoping the course would get me some of the way there and obviously some work experience the rest of the way.
Did you get any more info on the course?

MartinAnt

I have been in touch with the college about the course lads, and from what I can gather, there are no techie skills needed. They can accept people from Maths, Finance, etc backgrounds also.

2 modules per semester. Probably talking 4 hours per week per module of lectures / discussions etc and each 4 hours would be on the same day. Same time again required on your own it sounds like. Literary review every 3 weeks or so, so 4 of those during the semester and practical assessment at the end. Sounds like both modules will take this approach. Will be all done online.

It is the first time Business Intelligence and Data Mining has been run as its own stream, though Data Mining has been running for a number of years as part of other courses.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
MartinAnt

jfh

any of you guys go with this, wasn't brave enough to sign up in the end.
would appreciate any feedback on it.

TestLink

I also didnt. Did a bit of research abt the data mining algorithms and all (lots of videos on youtube) and realised that with the spare time available now, it wont be possible for me to do it ( atleast for the time being!)

jfh

thanks for your reply ITGuru, i'm still hoping to do it at somestage, just now everything is up in the air.

neil_hiss_a_gum

I didnt go for it either. It is something i would be interested in so maybe in the future. Would be interesting to hear from someone who is doing it.

markushofmann

Hi All

I'm one of the lecturers of this course and might be able to informally answer any questions you may have.

The course is running this semester with 15 students from Dublin, Cork, Wexford, Galway, UK and Germany. All lectures will be streamed live two evenings per week (6-9). Sometimes we invite guest lecturers to give a talk. For example, Mike Kehoe from IBM will give a talk about the role of BI in Smart Cities. We invite students to physically attend such guest lectures but still stream the content live.

We use Adobe Connect as virtual class room where students can be assigned to break-out rooms to carry out some group exercises or discuss various topics. It is fully interactive with chat and talk facilities. All lectures are recorded and can be viewed at any time throughout the module.

Hope this helped. I'll ask some of our students to provide some feedback.

Markus

andre_m

Hi guys,
I'm a registered student on the Msc in BI and DM in ITB this year.

I can confirm that the lectures are all online and so far so good! This is what made it very attractive as an option for me... (a 2 yr old infant and a 2nd due any day now! :-\ ) The flexibility of the online attendance also facilitates "attending" the same lecture again afterward as they are being recorded.

Into 4th week of lectures now(2/wk WED + THUR 6-9) and to date all lectures have run through fine. Lecture material is very interesting and looking ahead the upcoming semesters there seems to be a nice range of topics covered. (I work in software engineering and the modules match closely to my needs so I might be biased here... )

N.B : one thing to note is that the assessment is by continuous assessment so if you sign up be prepared to work from the beginning. There appears to be lots of focus on research and methods associated so if, like me, it's been a while since you had to read/write papers be prepared for lots of this too :-)...

Theory aside though there are requirements to work with open source tools (so far anyway) for labs but I gather the focus is on teaching the skills for BI and mining rather than on any one particular proprietary tool.

Overall a thumbs up for the course so far. Hope this helps...

maroun

I am in this course and can give you an insider's view of what is going on here. This is a very good program, most of what has been posted is correct.
It is entirely online & the class meets twice a week on Wed & Thur from 6 to 9 plus another hour per class more one on one focus.
It is a very well thought out program and has been running smooth outside a couple of sound trouble that you get in every live event but they get sorted. You get the best o both worlds, live and recored so you can go back like checking your own notes but they are all there. Both teachers are very good and have a different approach that makes for a well balanced exposure. I have been thinking about setting up a blog about what is going on and after reading this, I am encouraged to do so. WIll keep you all posted.

MartinAnt

Hi Maroun and Andre,

I know I am digging up a bit of an old thread, but would really like to hear how Semester 1 of this course has went for you guys (and also if you ever set up the blog Andre?).

How have you found the workload and how much time on average have you found you've had to put into the course on a weekly basis after lectures?

What were the assessments like and how many was there per subject? Did you physically attend the college much or do it all online?

I am intrigued, as I decided last year to not do the course as a combination of factors meant it wasnt feasible at the time, but I am very much considering it for the coming year.

Hoping to hear back from you.

Cheers,
MartinAnt

Paddy Orwell

Hi MartinAnt,
I am weighing up whether or not to do this course aswell. How do you think it compares to the Kevin St Data Analytics course or the UCD Business Analytics course?

mcgovern

I'm also considering this, how have people on the course found it?

darabbit

hi there,

I have just signed up for this course. Has anyone else sighed up for next September/Oct?

To the guys that have a year down, how much time per week did you have to commit to get through? I work full time and like to keep fit, hoping to run Dublin marathon in Oct. Did you find you were leaving work and starting research straight away or did you have some personal time?

Thanks.

jfh

darabbit wrote: »

hi there,

I have just signed up for this course. Has anyone else sighed up for next September/Oct?

To the guys that have a year down, how much time per week did you have to commit to get through? I work full time and like to keep fit, hoping to run Dublin marathon in Oct. Did you find you were leaving work and starting research straight away or did you have some personal time?

Thanks.

hi darabbit, i've also signed up for this course, did you ever get a response re queries?
i'd imagine you'd be ok with training as most of these courses take a few weeks to get going & you'll be tapering down training by the start of october.

bonjovi

Hi,

I just finished this course in January:) It was a great course with really interesting/relevant content with state-of-the-art open source technology. Let me know if you have any questions about the course?

Furthermore, its great to see that the Big Software companies like Oracle and SAP are taking Data Mining software seriously by releasing their own Data Mining Tools (i.e. SAP Predictive Analysis and Oracle R Enterprise). Predictive Data Mining is really taking off in Dublin with the likes of Accenture Analytics center, SAS, AON, SAP, Facebook and Google all recruiting in this area.

djk1000

bonjovi wrote: »

Hi,

I just finished this course in January:) It was a great course with really interesting/relevant content with state-of-the-art open source technology. Let me know if you have any questions about the course?

Furthermore, its great to see that the Big Software companies like Oracle and SAP are taking Data Mining software seriously by releasing their own Data Mining Tools (i.e. SAP Predictive Analysis and Oracle R Enterprise). Predictive Data Mining is really taking off in Dublin with the likes of Accenture Analytics center, SAS, AON, SAP, Facebook and Google all recruiting in this area.

Can I ask you how the course is viewed by employers? Since this is a growth area, were employers actively trying to recruit students? Are past students working in BI/DM?

Thanks!

KTaps

Can anybody currently taking the course give some insight into the level of maths / statistics taught. Does it give you an understanding of the maths behind the algorithms or just teach you how to use the software packages ?

How does it compare to the smurfit business analytics MSc?

What are the employment prospects like ?

vigos

KTaps wrote: »

Can anybody currently taking the course give some insight into the level of maths / statistics taught. Does it give you an understanding of the maths behind the algorithms or just teach you how to use the software packages ?

How does it compare to the smurfit business analytics MSc?

What are the employment prospects like ?

Would also be interested to hear answers to these questions

yam

Hi,

Masters in Data Mining / Analytics / Business Intelligence

Do u still recommend to do this course in ITB?
How is the Job opportunities ?
Please could you advice.

Scrappychimow

ITguru wrote: »

Hi jfh,
Do you know any other Masters in Computing/IT course (part time / online) with fees less than 3000, excluding Trinity?
Last year the fees for BN518 was 2500. So sooner you do, the cheaper the fees.

At Trinity there are a couple of courses with fees falling around 2500 range.
http://www.scss.tcd.ie/Fees_1011.php

1. TRS18 MSc Health Informatics 2,500
2. TRS52 MSc in Computer Science
(Networks and Distributed Systems) 2,500
3. TRS55 MSc in Computer Science
(Interactive Entertainment Technology) 2,500
4. TRS53 MSc in Computer Science
(Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing) 2,500
5. TRS54 MSc Technology and Learning 2,500
6. TRS51 MSc Interactive Digital Media 2,500

I tried for MSc Health Informatics, but didnt get through. Though later I came to know that there is not much scope or it here.

Can you still get the higher education grant to pay for the remaining 2500?

Nonie21

Hi,
I'm trying to decide between doing this course and the ucd one, I'm a bit worried about the level of research, peer evaluation thesis etc on this one and whether i'd actually ever finish it, I'd prefer to do exams.
I've done another online course previously and found it fantastic.
Anyone out there done this and can give advice.

Staplor

Nonie21 wrote: »

Hi,
I'm trying to decide between doing this course and the ucd one, I'm a bit worried about the level of research, peer evaluation thesis etc on this one and whether i'd actually ever finish it, I'd prefer to do exams.
I've done another online course previously and found it fantastic.
Anyone out there done this and can give advice.

I'm in the middle of my thesis. I'm managing the course with a full time job and a kid.

Research wise it is fine, you are given papers to research and you can generally pick what direction you want to go in (within reason). They stagger the assignments so they aren't all due the same week.

Peer evaluation is relatively small, I did it only once, and your evaluation does not make the persons grade, the lecturer considers it and then marks the person.

The thesis is tricky to do, but you get plenty of time, the college gives suggestions but you can pick your own, I picked my own. Then they pair you up with a lecturer to bounce ideas back and forth. I'm starting to work on mine now and really cracking into it.

I'm enjoying the course and am finding it useful in work, but interesting also.

Nonie21

Thanks Staplor,

Have you come across many of the tools used in workplaces?

Staplor

My place was pretty backwards, so they weren't used here.

All of the tools they use in class are free for personal use. I've just purchased one package for about €150 which will make my thesis a whole lot easier.

Nonie21

But you learned how to use them as part of the course?

Staplor

Absolutely, they do walk throughs on how to use the software, you do things alongside the lecturer, all of it is recorded, and you can watch it back later, I found that to be brilliant.

I came to the course as someone who was good on Excel, and could use the database querying tool that we have in work.

illdoit2morrow

Staplor wrote: »

Absolutely, they do walk throughs on how to use the software, you do things alongside the lecturer, all of it is recorded, and you can watch it back later, I found that to be brilliant.

I came to the course as someone who was good on Excel, and could use the database querying tool that we have in work.

Hi Staplor,

I hope you don't mind me piggy backing a few questions.

I have enrolled on this course and will start in September. Is there a large 'maths' element to the course?

How many hours outside the lecturers did you put in in an average week to keep abreast with what you covered?

Computing wise, would I need something descent to do some of the assignments?

Staplor

Not really a large maths element, I've never been amazing and managed to follow what was going on. If you are looking at the theory behind a technique there's an algebraic equation behind everything, you don't need to learn it, but it's understandable, so I wouldn't worry about the maths side.

Outside lectures, I honestly did very little, they spread out assignments, and really a weekend of solid work does the smaller papers, maybe 2 for a larger assignment, there was usually 2 small and 1 large assignments. If you have distractions like a family etc, it's great to get them out of the house when you are working.

Computing wise, something decent is handy. By the time I got to Christmas in year 1, I couldn't run a program on my work PC, (2GB Ram), so i got an early christmas present of an i5 processor with 8gb ram, does the job nicely. Got it cheap enough too, think about €600. The faster your computer is, the faster calculations will be done in the programs you use.

conor05

Hi Staplor

Sorry to bump up this thread again, just I am in the process of applying for this course (Late I know) for the September start.

I am coming from a non-computer expert background. I work with AIB in Baggot Street but this is an area I really want to move into. Now I can use all microsoft office and use excel databases at work, just not to a degree computer science level obviously.

Do you reckon the conversion would be do-able?

vigos

Hi Conor05,

There are some prerequisites for entry to the course do you meet those?

http://www.itb.ie/StudyatITB/bn518BID.html

i.e. "Second Class Honours Grade 2 (GPA 2.5 or equivalent) in an NFQ Level 8 Degree in Computing, Science, Engineering, Business with IT, or equivalent"

conor05

Hi vigos

Yes I have an Honours Bsc degree in Quality Control Management with statistic Process Control the main core.

I might actually check with the Tutor Geraldine to see does it meet the specs.

Cheers
Conor

vigos

The course doesn't really have a huge requirement for programming but it will help a lot to be comfortable with computers, databases. Saying that if you haven't done a degree with a programming element it can be a sticking point unless you've working experience to back it up. Anyway best to talk with the tutor to confirm things to be on the safe side

They also have a website describing the course in detail

http://www.dataminingmasters.com/

vigos

Also just saw this might be worth attending, its an online Q&A session

http://www.kdnuggets.com/2015/08/itb-online-msc-bi-data-mining-august.html

conor05

That's excellent. To be honest I am still young enough so I might ask them in the live Q+A is there a bridging course I could do between now and September that would get me up to speed in some core subjects. I don't want to struggle through the Msc and get a poor grade. Be a waste of time and money.
Thanks for sending that on, I would say it will be an informative chat session on the 26th.
Did you do the course yourself?

conor05

I meant a bridging course between now and September 2016!

vigos

Yes I did the course myself,plus I wouldn't put yourself off from not doing the course before talking with Geraldine. I think if you have the interest in the area and are motivated then that’s half the battle.

beauf

How much time a week did it require for you.

illdoit2morrow

vigos wrote: »

Also just saw this might be worth attending, its an online Q&A session

http://www.kdnuggets.com/2015/08/itb-online-msc-bi-data-mining-august.html

That kdnuggets site looks like a good resource to have, thanks for the link vigos.

vigos

beauf wrote: »

How much time a week did it require for you.

Well lectures were generally 5 to 6 hours a week so for me it would vary from week to week but could be anything up to 20 hours including lectures. Another poster had different hours so its really up to the person I think.