Business Analytics Certificate

(Not offered in AY 2025 - 2026)

Spring H4

Introduction to data mining, data science, and machine learning for recognizing patterns, developing models and predictive analytics, and making intelligent use of massive amounts of data collected via the internet, e-commerce, electronic banking, medical databases, etc. Topics include logistic regression, association rules, tree-structured classification and regression, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, and neural network methods. Presents examples of successful applications in credit ratings, fraud detection, marketing, customer relationship management, investments, and synthetic clinical trials. Introduces data-mining software (R and Python). Grading based on homework, cases, and a term project. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking undergraduate version; consult syllabus or instructor for specific details.

15.071 Analytics Edge

Spring or Fall

Develops models and tools of data analytics that are used to transform businesses and industries, using examples and case studies in e-commerce, healthcare, social media, high technology, criminal justice, the internet, and beyond. Covers analytics methods such as linear regression, logistic regression, classification trees, random forests, neural networks, text analytics, social network analysis, time series modeling, clustering, and optimization. Uses mostly R programming language with some Python. Includes team projects. Meets with 15.0711 when offered concurrently. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version; consult syllabus or instructor for specific details.

OR

15.072 Advanced Analytics Edge 

Fall 2025, 12 units

More advanced version of 15.071 introduces core methods of business analytics, their algorithmic implementations and their applications to various domains of management and public policy. Spans descriptive analytics (e.g., clustering, dimensionality reduction), predictive analytics (e.g., linear/logistic regression, classification and regression trees, random forests, boosting deep learning) and prescriptive analytics (e.g., optimization). Presents analytics algorithms, and their implementations in data science. Includes case studies in e-commerce, transportation, energy, healthcare, social media, sports, the internet, and beyond. Uses the R and Julia programming languages. Includes team projects. Preference to Sloan Master of Business Analytics students.

Spring 2026, 6 units

More advanced version of 15.071. Covers key topics in data science (in the context of analytics) ranging from descriptive, inferential statistics, and regressions analysis to modern predictive analytics (interpretable machine learning models, trees, rules, and flexible black-box methods). All methods and tools illustrated through real-world applications. Focuses on topics that are most relevant to the practical analysis of managerial decisions. Uses the R and Julia programming languages. Preference to Sloan Master of Business Analytics students.

Spring 2025

In-depth treatment of the modern theory of integer programming and combinatorial optimization, emphasizing geometry, duality, and algorithms. Topics include formulating problems in integer variables, enhancement of formulations, ideal formulations, integer programming duality, linear and semidefinite relaxations, lattices and their applications, the geometry of integer programming, primal methods, cutting plane methods, connections with algebraic geometry, computational complexity, approximation algorithms, heuristic and enumerative algorithms, mixed integer programming and solutions of large-scale problems.

Develops algorithms for central problems in machine learning from a modern optimization perspective. Topics include sparse, convex, robust and median regression; an algorithmic framework for regression; optimal classification and regression trees, and their relationship with neural networks; how to transform predictive algorithms to prescriptive algorithms; optimal prescriptive trees; and robust classification.  Also covers design of experiments, missing data imputations, mixture of Gaussian models, exact bootstrap, and sparse matrix estimation, including principal component analysis, factor analysis, inverse co-variance matrix estimation, and matrix completion.

Introduces the principal algorithms for linear, network, discrete, robust, nonlinear, and dynamic optimization. Emphasizes methodology and the underlying mathematical structures. Topics include the simplex method, network flow methods, branch and bound and cutting plane methods for discrete optimization, optimality conditions for nonlinear optimization, interior point methods for convex optimization, Newton's method, heuristic methods, and dynamic programming and optimal control methods. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version; consult syllabus or instructor for specific details.

IAP 2023 and IAP 2024

Group study of current topics related to management not otherwise included in curriculum.

Principles, techniques, and algorithms in machine learning from the point of view of statistical inference; representation, generalization, and model selection; and methods such as linear/additive models, active learning, boosting, support vector machines, non-parametric Bayesian methods, hidden Markov models, Bayesian networks, and convolutional and recurrent neural networks. Recommended prerequisite: 6.3900 or other previous experience in machine learning. Enrollment may be limited.

Advanced topics in computer vision with a focus on the use of machine learning techniques and applications in graphics and human-computer interface. Covers image representations, texture models, structure-from-motion algorithms, Bayesian techniques, object and scene recognition, tracking, shape modeling, and image databases. Applications may include face recognition, multimodal interaction, interactive systems, cinematic special effects, and photorealistic rendering. Covers topics complementary to 6.8390. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.