Data Mining Foundations and Practice

The Data Mining specialization is intended for data science professionals and domain experts who want to learn the fundamental concepts and core techniques for discovering patterns in large-scale data sets. This specialization consists of three courses: (1) Data Mining Pipeline, which introduces the key steps of data understanding, data preprocessing, data warehouse, data modeling and interpretation/evaluation; (2) Data Mining Methods, which covers core techniques for frequent pattern analysis, classification, clustering, and outlier detection; and (3) Data Mining Project, which offers guidance and hands-on experience of designing and implementing a real-world data mining project. Data Mining can be taken for academic credit as part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Data Science (MS-DS) degree offered on the Coursera platform. The MS-DS is an interdisciplinary degree that brings together faculty from CU Boulder’s departments of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Science, and others. With performance-based admissions and no application process, the MS-DS is ideal for individuals with a broad range of undergraduate education and/or professional experience in computer science, information science, mathematics, and statistics. Learn more about the MS-DS program at https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master-of-science-data-science-boulder. Specialization logo image courtesy of Diego Gonzaga, available here on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/QG93DR4I0NE

• Data mining pipeline: data understanding, preprocessing, warehousing
• Data mining methods: frequent patterns, classification, clustering, outliers
• Data mining project: project formulation, design, implementation, reporting

• Basic familiarity with the topic and its common terminology
• Readiness to practice through applied exercises or case-based work