Information Technology, Analytics, and Operations

Department Chair and Jack and Joan McGraw Family Professor of ITAO:
Corey Angst

James H. Sweeny III and Alicia Sweeny Collegiate Professor of ITAO:
Nicholas Berente

Edward Frederick Sorin Society Professor of ITAO:
Ken Kelley

Joe & Jane Giovanini Professor of ITAO, and Academic Director of the Ph.D. Program in Analytics:
Ahmed Abbasi

Fred V. Duda Professor of Business:
Sarv Devaraj

William P. and Hazel B. White Technology and Ethics Collegiate Professor of ITAO:
Kirsten Martin

Greg and Patty Fox Collegiate Professor of ITAO:
Alfonso Pedraza-Martinez

Professors:
Daewon Sun; Heng Xu; Nan Zhang

Associate Professors:
Sriram Somanchi; Katie Wowak; Zifeng Zhao

Assistant Professors:
Francis Bilson Darku; Jeff Cai; Eojin Han; Cam Kormylo; John Lalor; Junghee Lee; Shawn Qu; Yoonseock Son; Margaret Traeger; Yang Yang; Chengcheng Zhai

Teaching Professor, and Academic Director of Computer Science/Business Program:
Michael Chapple

Teaching Professors:
Robert Lewandowski; Jennifer Waddell

Associate Teaching Professor, and Academic Director of the Global EMBA Program:
Brandon Erlacher

Associate Teaching Professors, and Academic Co-Directors of the Master of Science in Business Analytics Residential Program:
Seth Berry; Sharif Nijim

Associate Teaching Professors:
Martin Barron; Xiaojing Duan; Frederick Nwanganga

Assistant Teaching Professor, Assistant Department Chair, and Director of Undergraduate Studies:
Joe Ke

Assistant Teaching Professor:
Josephine Akosa

Programs of Study

The IT, Analytics, and Operations Department offers a major in Business Analytics, and a minor in Business Technology and Analytics.

The Department of Information Technology, Analytics, and Operations offers their courses under the subject code of: Information Technology, Analytics, and Operations (ITAO). Courses associated with their academic programs may be found below. The scheduled classes for a given semester may be found at classearch.nd.edu.

Information Technology, Analytics, and Operations (ITAO)

ITAO 20200 Statistical Inference in Business (3 Credit Hours)

Statistical Inference in Business focuses on using data to make sound inferences about a population based on sample data, especially in business contexts. More specifically, students will learn how to make inferences using test statistics and confidence intervals in contexts of multiple groups and/or multiple variables, with multiple regression and related methods heavily emphasized. Throughout the course, issues of sampling variability, research design, causality, and the assumptions and limitations of the methods are discussed. Students will supplement their conceptual understanding of the material using statistics software.

Satisfies the following University Core Requirements: WKQR- Core Quantitat Reasoning

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 20210 Coding Fundamentals with Python (3 Credit Hours)

It is very important in the current age of automation and data-driven business models to have a basic understanding of coding, and to acquire some of the skills of programming. This course introduces students to Python, a widely used programming language among data scientists, with the goal of cleaning, modeling, transforming and analyzing data. Students will learn fundamentals of coding, use python packages for acquiring data from various sources, learn skills to slice and dice the data and produce data visualizations. They will gain experience in Python and apply these skills in generating reproducible reports in business contexts. In addition, students will have opportunity to apply programming skills and work on various projects/datasets that are pertinent to all the majors in the business school.

ITAO 20600 Introduction to Business Technology and Analytics (3 Credit Hours)

Businesses today generate large amounts of data. Analysts are tasked with using that information to identify trends and problems, improve decision-making, increasing efficiency and optimize business processes. All of this can be achieved using Microsoft Excel and its add-on Business Intelligence tools such as Solver, Power Query and Power Pivot. This course provides an introduction and structure to analyzing what-if scenarios, organizing big data, using relational databases and developing clear data visualizations all using one application - Microsoft Excel.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30100 Analytics Workflows with Power BI (3 Credit Hours)

Business Analytics allows us to make sense of what we see in the real world by using data and a systematic approach to solve real problems and make business decisions. This course provides the fundamental concepts and methods needed to understand the emerging role of business analytics in organizations. You will learn how to properly plan an analytics strategy, collect data, analyze the data and report findings through visualizations and storytelling. Having a strong understanding of concepts in this course will give you a strong foundation in all the areas that support analytics and will help you to better position yourself for success in the remainder of the Business Analytics major and beyond.

ITAO 30150 Data Storytelling (1.5 Credit Hours)

A principal challenge for anyone working with ubiquitous data is communicating results of an analysis to stakeholders. This course teaches students the art of clear, effective, and engaging data presentation with attention to the business necessity of translating complex technical subjects into actionable insights for a lay audience. Students will harness the power of storytelling for the strategic benefit of an organization by turning a raw set of data into a compelling message that resonates with an intended audience.

Prerequisites: (MGT 20200 or MGTO 20100) and (BAMG 20150 or ITAO 20200 or ECON 30331 or ACMS 30540 or ACMS 30600 or MATH 30540) and (MGT 20600 or ITAO 20600) and ACCT 20100 and FIN 20150 and MARK 20100 and ITAO 30240 (may be taken concurrently)

Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Business Analytics or Information Tech. Management.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30160 Conveying Visual Data Insights (3 Credit Hours)

The development of data insights utilized to create a competitive advantage, optimize processes and decide on strategy is increasingly becoming more commonplace in organizations today. Software companies have "commercialized" this process and made access to information from datasets available to anyone through easy tools and interfaces, yet this has created an environment full of noise, leading to a loss of the important insights necessary to create value. This course will provide a foundation for students to develop and effectively communicate clear visual insights and actionable data necessary for defined audiences using Tableau and other visualization and presentation tools.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 20200 or ECON 30331 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30600 (may be taken concurrently) or MATH 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or ECON 30341 (may be taken concurrently) or GLAF 10003 (may be taken concurrently) or ITAO 24201) and (ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10118 or EG 10116)

ITAO 30210 Data Analysis with Python (3 Credit Hours)

It is very important in the current age of big data and data-driven business models to have basic skills of programming. This course introduces students to Python, a widely used programming language among data scientists, with the goal of cleaning, modeling, transforming and analyzing data. Students will learn fundamentals of programming, use python packages for acquiring data from various sources, learn skills to slice and dice the data and produce data visualizations. They will gain experience in Python and apply these skills in generating reproducible reports in business contexts. Also, this course prepares them for more advanced data science and machine learning methods.

Prerequisites: (BAMG 20150 or ITAO 20200 or ECON 30331 or ACMS 30540 or ACMS 30600 or MATH 30540) and (MGT 20600 or ITAO 20600) and (MGT 20200 or MGTO 20100) and ACCT 20100 and FIN 20150 and MARK 20100

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence or Information Tech. Management.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30220 Predictive Analytics (3 Credit Hours)

The unprecedented availability of data and information now allows companies to rely on facts rather than intuition to drive their business decisions. Giant online retailers like Amazon.com investigate customers' browsing histories to recommend products that may be of interest to customers. Banks study the payment patterns of old customers to predict the likelihood that new borrowers will default. Wireless providers analyze usage data to predict customer turnover. Firms can make better strategic and tactical decisions and gain competitive advantages by leveraging the tremendous amount of data now available on the table. We'll study the tools and techniques these companies and others use to make better and faster decisions, and we'll learn about how methods such as data mining can be used to extract knowledge from data.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 20200 or ECON 30331 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30600 (may be taken concurrently) or MATH 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or GLAF 10003 (may be taken concurrently) or ECON 30341 (may be taken concurrently) or ITAO 24201) and (ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10118 or EG 10116) and (ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34232)

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence or Information Tech. Management.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30230 Data Management (1.5 Credit Hours)

Relational databases store the majority of the information used in business analytics efforts and data analysts work with these crucial infrastructure platforms on a daily basis. In this course, you will gain an understanding of the key concepts surrounding the storage and security of structured data in relational databases. You will learn how to create, modify and query databases using the Structured Query Language (SQL). You will also discover how data analysts clean and transform this data into forms suitable for analysis using the R programming language. Finally, you will gain an understanding of the issues surrounding Big Data applications and the use of unstructured data in business analytics efforts.

Prerequisites: ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10116 or EG 10118

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics or Business Intelligence.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30240 Data Exploration and Visualization (1.5 Credit Hours)

The use of tables and graphs to communicate quantitative information is a customary practice in businesses today, yet few have learned the design practices that make the communication of data most effective. This course serves as an introduction to productive data visualization practices and will bring students one step closer to helping their organization solve business problems visually. Students in this course will understand the fundamentals of visual perception, graphs and tables and how to apply these design skills. In addition, students will gain hands on experience creating exploratory and explanatory data visualizations using Tableau, an industry leading tool.

Prerequisites: (MGT 20600 or ITAO 20600) and (BAMG 20150 or ITAO 20200 or ECON 30331 or ACMS 30540 or ACMS 30600 or MATH 30540) and (MGT 20200 or MGTO 20100) and ACCT 20100 and FIN 20150 and MARK 20100

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics or Business Intelligence.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30250 Data Wrangling (1.5 Credit Hours)

You can find data everywhere, but that does not mean that it is always ready to analyze. Data is increasingly being saved in complicated structures, while also becoming larger. With this increasing complexity, analysts need to be able to perform any number of data manipulation tasks. In this class, we will start at the basics of R (vectors, lists, and data frames) and work our way up through iteration, functions, and visualization. Through our class activities, you will be able to more confidently and quickly work with data-related tasks that require high-level programming.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 20200 or ITAO 24201 or ECON 30341 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30600 (may be taken concurrently) or MATH 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or GLAF 10003 (may be taken concurrently) or ECON 30331 (may be taken concurrently)) and (ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10118 or EG 10116) and (ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34232)

Students cannot enroll who have a program in Business Analytics.

ITAO 30310 AI for Good (3 Credit Hours)

Traditional strategies to fight against poverty, inequality and climate change have proved ineffective in the last decades. New and creative solutions are required where cutting-edge technological innovation and multidisciplinary work serve the common good. In this course, you will explore the state of the art in AI business development and its ethical implications in relation to current global societal and environmental challenges. You will reflect on your individual role in society and develop critical thinking about the current socio-technical value system. Our readings will include original works of philosophers, economists and computer scientists as well as examples of state-of-the-art AI supported business and institutional projects. As a result of the readings and class discussions, you will acquire well-informed understanding about the implications of the AI Trustworthy principle of justice and fairness, including non-discrimination and avoidance of unfair bias. You will become aware of the potential for AI to contribute, if well managed, towards fairer and more sustainable societies as well as the dangers it entails to widen inequalities and aggravate the discrimination suffered by vulnerable communities. This is a hands-on course where you will be ideating and planning projects for the social good. I will accompany you in the development of business plans where ethics is the driver and AI is the key instrument. I will help you define your project idea in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Therefore, your projects will be designed to work towards mitigating poverty, reducing gender and race inequality, combating climate change, improving the sustainability of cities and communities, ensuring affordable and clean energy, achieving responsible consumption and production, improving the quality of education, providing better health and well-being services, ensuring decent work and economic growth or promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. The goal of the course is to encourage and support you, as new entrepreneurs and future leaders, to work in multidisciplinary teams and develop interdisciplinary skills, being able to take advantage of new technology to create and manage projects for ethics in action.

ITAO 30350 Language Processing in Practice (3 Credit Hours)

Natural Language Processing (NLP) has emerged as a crucial skill in the workforce, especially with the advent and accessibility of generative AI technologies. From intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants to automated content creation and sentiment analysis, NLP applications are transforming industries and redefining how we interact with technology. Mastery of NLP techniques and tools not only opens doors to careers in the technology sector but also equips students to contribute to innovations that shape our future. Language Processing in Practice is a hands-on course designed to introduce students to the fundamental theory and applications of NLP, with a special emphasis on working with large language models, generative AI, and the Hugging Face ecosystem. The course focuses on practical techniques for processing, analyzing, generating, and understanding human language data. Students will explore key topics such as text preprocessing, tokenization, part-of-speech tagging, parsing, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, machine translation, and text generation. The curriculum places a strong emphasis on modern NLP libraries and frameworks like NLTK, spaCy, and particularly Hugging Face Transformers. Through a series of projects and assignments, students will gain experience in building NLP applications, creating word embeddings with pre-trained large language models, and generating human-like text using generative AI models. Basic proficiency in Python programming is required.

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Businss Technology Analytics.

ITAO 30390 Fundamentals of Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain Technology, and NFTs (3 Credit Hours)

This course will provide students with a comprehensive introduction to the world of cryptocurrencies, blockchain technologies, and NFTs. The course will cover what blockchain is and how it works. It will also explore many of the applications of the technology today including those in the financial industry, supply chain, and in government. In addition, cryptocurrencies, which run on top of blockchain technology are the most prevalent uses of blockchain. The course will cover how cryptocurrencies work, the cryptocurrency marketplace, and the future of digital money. Other uses of blockchain explored in the course will include non-fungible tokens (NFTs), DeFi, and Smart Contracts. Finally, the course will cover the ethical, legal, and socio-political challenges of these technologies. The course will feature guest lectures from Silicon Valley founders of startups in this space.

ITAO 30610 Application Development (3 Credit Hours)

While most of us use computers as part of our daily lives, very few of us know how the computer programs we use actually work. Using object-oriented event-driven programming, we'll build and use programs that allow the computer to perform functions you design. Your VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) programming skills will help you develop expertise as the go-to person for programming solutions, especially within Excel and other MS Office applications, and will transfer easily to many other programming languages including programming for the Internet.

Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Information Tech. Management.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30620 Digital Transformation (1.5 Credit Hours)

Digital disruption is reshaping entire industries in today's global economy. In this dynamic environment, organizations must be agile and innovate with emerging technologies to generate new value propositions. Using the concept of "macro technology forces," we will explore how the past, present, and future of IT innovation tends to follow the same three-tiered architecture over the past 160 years: Computation, Information, and Interaction. This course will provide you with a frame of reference, or lens, to apply to business problems that will help you think about ways that firms can be digitally transformed.

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Information Tech. Management or Management Consulting.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30630 Systems Analysis and Design (3 Credit Hours)

Each day, organizations like Wal-Mart analyze hundreds of millions of transactions to increase efficiency and better serve their customers. We'll use market-leading Oracle Enterprise Database software to store and analyze large datasets just like Wal-Mart does. In addition, you'll serve as an IT consultant and build a real-world application for a client organization. In this role, you'll experience the entire system analysis process, including problem definition & analysis, design processes, testing, and implementation.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10118 or EG 10116) and (ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34232)

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Intelligence or Information Tech. Management.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30640 Privacy and Security (3 Credit Hours)

In today's digital age, people and organizations produce and deal with unprecedented amounts of data. Thus, issues concerning information privacy and security have taken on critical importance. Information privacy and security are fundamentally about data protection. Information privacy refers to decisions around what information should be protected, from whom, why, and issues related to the ownership of information; whereas information security refers to the tactics and technologies to ensure data protection. In this course, we will address questions such as: How should organizations manage privacy and security issues? What are the various privacy and security threats that organizations and individuals face? What are the current advancements in privacy and security technologies and government regulations? We will learn about economics of privacy, biases and heuristics in privacy decisions, privacy ethics, social engineering, and public policy and regulations. Also, we will gain an understanding of security threats and gain insight into managerial best practices for managing information security. This course will involve a number of assignments along with interactive in-class exercises aimed at enhancing your privacy and security decisions.

Prerequisites: ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10116 or EG 10118

Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Information Tech. Management.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30660 Project Management (3 Credit Hours)

Whether you become a high-profile real estate developer, an investment banker, or an entrepreneur, in any career you'll need some project management skills to get your job done. Everyone tries to get projects finished on time and under budget, but many critical business projects fail anyway. We'll learn the steps associated with successful project management, examine some optimization techniques, learn how to use the software tools that enhance productivity, and discuss how to avoid the implementation pitfalls that cause good people doing good projects to fail.

Prerequisites: ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10116 or EG 10118

ITAO 30670 The Video Game Industry (3 Credit Hours)

The production and business of video games has grown to become a $200+ billion industry and a leading form of entertainment globally. Video games attract players from diverse backgrounds and the mainstream consumer base is no longer limited to "hardcore gamers." Games have garnered mass appeal on social and casual platforms, PCs and consoles, smartphones, virtual reality, in competitive eSports tournaments, and more. Weekly topics of study in this course include game design/psychology, gaming technologies, artistic fundamentals, development workflows, business models and structures, funding and financing, marketing, distribution channels and markets, and legal/ethical issues. Through lectures, discussions, group exercises, reading assignments, and gameplay sessions, students will gain a thorough understanding of this highly creative and complex industry. Furthermore, students will gain an appreciation for video games as a legitimate form of art and a significant force for cultural impact.

ITAO 30700 Cybersecurity (1.5 Credit Hours)

Cybersecurity is at the heart of protecting modern organizations, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical information and systems. In this course, students will build an understanding of the principles, processes, and practices that underlie effective security programs. We will examine the roles of risk management, access control, network and system defense, incident response, and continuity planning, while also considering the human, organizational, and strategic dimensions of security. Through a combination of analytical frameworks, applied exercises, and discussions, students will develop the knowledge and skills needed to assess vulnerabilities, design security controls, and support resilient operations in diverse environments.

ITAO 30800 Introduction to Process Analytics (1.5 Credit Hours)

Businesses compete based on the efficiency and effectiveness of delivering an experience, service, or good to their customers. This class provides a foundation for evaluating and analyzing business processes in order to make them more efficient and effective. Students will understand the problems and issues confronting operations managers. Furthermore, they will also learn language, concepts, insights, and tools to deal with these issues in order to gain competitive advantage through process analytics. The concepts and tools presented in this class can be applied to the service or manufacturing sector, to for-profit or not-for-profit organizations and all disciplines within a business.

Prerequisites: (ACMS 10145 or ACMS 10091 or ACMS 30530 or MATH 30530 or BAMG 20150 or ITAO 20200 or ECON 30330 or PSY 30100 or SOC 30903 or ACMS 20340 or ACMS 30440 and (MGT 20200 or MGTO 20100) and ACCT 20100 and FIN 20150 and (MGT 20600 or ITAO 20600) and MARK 20100

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 30810 Intelligent Processes and Supply Chain Analytics (3 Credit Hours)

Business and government leaders are increasingly recognizing the importance of involving the whole organization in making strategic decisions in order to compete globally. Because an organization usually commits a bulk of its human and financial assets to operations, operations is an important function in meeting global competition. Firms today compete on multiple dimensions and must align their operations to whatever competitive choices they make. Successful firms have demonstrated that operations can be an effective competitive weapon and, in conjunction with well-conceived marketing and financial plans, these firms have made major penetrations into markets worldwide. This course is designed to address key operations and supply chain management issues in a variety of contexts including manufacturing and service organizations as well as for-profit and non-profit organizations. Students will understand the role of operations in the overall business strategy of the firm and be able to identify and evaluate the key factors in the design of effective operations for the production of products and delivery of services. The course also covers a range of tools appropriate for the analysis of a firm’s operations and offers an opportunity to discuss and compare various approaches to operations and supply chain management in an international context. The aim of this course is to (1) familiarize students with operations and supply chain management, and (2) provide students with language, concepts, insights and tools to solve operational issues in order to gain competitive advantage through more efficient and effective processes.

ITAO 40150 Simulation and Optimization (1.5 Credit Hours)

Whether it is picking an investment portfolio, moving goods through a supply chain, staffing a customer support center, or deciding how many reservations an airline or hotel should take, business decisions involve substantial quantitative analysis. In this course, you will learn how simulation and optimization can help solve such problems, while also learning how these techniques are applied across other domains like statistics and machine learning. Most importantly, you will learn how to implement these techniques through programming languages like R and Python.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 20200 or ITAO 24201 or ECON 30331 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30600 (may be taken concurrently) or GLAF 10003 (may be taken concurrently) or MATH 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or ECON 30341 (may be taken concurrently)) and (ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10118 or EG 10116) and (ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34232)

Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Business Analytics, Information Tech. Management or Management Consulting.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 40217 Digital Forensic Analysis (3 Credit Hours)

Digital devices and communications are a part of daily life. From computers to cell phones to online accounts, we generate a significant digital footprint. As such, most civil and criminal investigations contain a nexus to digital evidence. This course will cover the principles of digital forensic analysis, including Electronic Discovery and the forensic process of Extraction, Processing, and Analysis. Students will learn and develop skills related to: acquiring smartphone, computer, removable media, and other forensic images; analyzing artifacts, file systems, and registry data; use of multiple methods and verification features to validate findings; and how to generate reports and distribute findings to share digital forensic results quickly and easily. Students will have the opportunity to use commercial digital forensics software to participate in hands-on lectures and practical exercise. This will include conducting digital forensic analysis on a computer, an iOS device, an Android device, and multiple items from cloud accounts. At the conclusion of the course, students will have a firm base knowledge of digital forensics and be able to independently perform digital forensics exams.

ITAO 40218 Forensic Psych of Cybercrimes (3 Credit Hours)

The use and interaction with digital devices and the internet are ingrained in our lives. This course will introduce students to the principles of forensic psychology as they apply to cybercrime offenses. Students will learn the psychology of various types of offenders, including those of hackers, online child offenders, cyber stalkers, and identity thieves. Students will also learn the psychology of the online activities of those who have carried out mass killings.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 40230 Data Analysis with Python (1.5 Credit Hours)

Scientific computing has become an integral part of a data science life cycle in the contemporary world of data-driven decision making. In this course, students will enhance their foundational skills in Python and tailor their knowledge towards performing data-intensive tasks to make raw data organized, readable, and clean. Students will learn to use Python libraries for discovering interesting patterns through data wrangling and visualization techniques. They will gain experience in Python and apply these skills in generating reproducible reports in business contexts. Also, this course provides students with the foundations of machine learning methods and prepares them for more advanced data science methods.

Prerequisites: ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10116 or EG 10118

ITAO 40250 Unstructured Data Analytics (1.5 Credit Hours)

Approximately 80% of the world's data is unstructured, that is data that is not stored in a relational database. It is growing at fifteen times the rate of databases. Examples of unstructured data include e-mails, financial filings, customer feedback, blogs, online reviews, instant messages, tweets, pictures, and videos. Extraction of information from unstructured data is increasingly important for companies and other organizations but is still a nascent practice area within them. Analytic techniques are increasingly important for understanding what can be learned from unstructured data sets and demand is strong for unstructured data analytical skills. This course introduces the student to the basic concepts of unstructured data and the basic analytic techniques used to extract useful information from this data. The emphasis will be on determining what data to collect, how to collect it, how to process it and finally creating analytics from the data to solve basic business problems. Sources of text data will include emails, tweets and various documents. The analytics techniques will focus on solving problems using word counts, document term matrices, and classification techniques. The learning outcomes from this class will provide students with the basic skills sought in the marketplace.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 30220 or ITAO 34220 or ITAO 34221) and (ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34232) and ITAO 30100

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics or Business Intelligence.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 40420 Machine Learning (1.5 Credit Hours)

Machine learning is the science of getting technology systems to act without following prescriptive software. Most AI is unknowingly used daily by humans in their cars, homes, companies and experience it in the infrastructure of our nation. Most think we are in the midst of a new industrial revolution that is driven by AI software accompanied by sensors and big data that feed the software what it needs to act. This course will teach machine learning techniques and the application of those techniques. The course will cover supervised learning, unsupervised learning, best practices and AI safety or the ethics of AI. The course will examine real life examples such as robotic control, text understanding, medical informatics, and many other areas being impacted by machine learning.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 30220 or ITAO 34220 or ITAO 34221) and (ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34232) and ITAO 30100

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics or Business Intelligence.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 40430 Customer Engagement Analytics (1.5 Credit Hours)

With the continued disruption of consumer attention caused by changes in technology, understanding how to navigate multi-channel marketing tactics, personalization, privacy and tracking methods is more important than ever. Students will learn to identify and attract desirable audiences and provide them with the appropriate experience to drive engagement and firm value. We will examine the strategies and analytics of customers moving through a typical marketing funnel via different devices, platforms, and stages and learn to apply the correct targeted tactics based on data during the different stages — acquisition, engagement, conversion and retention. Social, search, content and conversion analytics will be explored and applied to maximize the customer value utilizing different tools such as Google Analytics, Customer Data Platforms, Content Recommenders and Data Management Platforms.

Prerequisites: ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34232

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics or Business Intelligence.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 40450 Data Acquisition (1.5 Credit Hours)

There is no shortage of data in the world. While data is constantly swirling around us, actually acquiring it can prove difficult. To make actionable insights, we need a way to collect that data and prepare it for analysis. In this course, you will learn how to acquire data through several methods: application programming interfaces (APIs), web scraping, web-based surveys, and streaming. We will take an in-depth look at each of these technologies, so that you can apply them in any real analytics scenario. You will be able to use these various technologies to collect data and conduct analyses commonly seen for each type of method (from standard modeling techniques to factor analysis and beyond). This course will focus on using R, Python, and Qualtrics to collect and analyze data, in addition to exploring modern data streaming technologies. While Qualtrics will be used for survey creation and administration, the survey methodology skills will translate to any survey program.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 20200 or ITAO 24201 or ECON 30331 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or ACMS 30600 (may be taken concurrently) or MATH 30540 (may be taken concurrently) or GLAF 10003 (may be taken concurrently) or ECON 30341 (may be taken concurrently)) and (ITAO 20210 or ITAO 24210 or ACMS 20220 or EG 10118 or EG 10116) and (ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34242)

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics.

ITAO 40510 Ethics of Data Analytics (1.5 Credit Hours)

Data-informed decision making has created new opportunities, but also expands the set of possible risks to organizations. One of these risks comes from grappling with the "should we?" question with regard to data and analytics, and associated concerns with identity, privacy, ownership, and reputation. In this course, we will explore several frameworks to address the issues related to the proper roles of public law, government regulation, professional codes, organizational approaches, and individual ethics in performing and managing analytics activities. The course will cover applicable theory and guidelines, and also make use of case studies. Upon completion, the student should be comfortable adapting one of these ethical frameworks for use in alignment with their organizational mission.

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence or Information Tech. Management.

ITAO 40515 Auditing AI: An Introduction (3 Credit Hours)

As artificial intelligence (AI) grows increasingly pervasive in society, it is essential that we develop an understanding of how AI systems work. A vital part of this understanding is a careful consideration of various risks (e.g., the presence of bias, a lack of transparency, regulatory compliance) when AI systems are designed and deployed in real-world settings. To understand and address these concerns, this course introduces students to the fundamentals of AI auditing ? the practice of evaluating and improving the ethics of AI systems. Through a combination of interactive discussions and semi-technical lab sessions, students will develop an auditing "toolkit." This toolkit includes both theoretical and technical concepts, especially relevant for the increasingly interdisciplinary teams of the modern workforce. Students will work on group case assignments as "audit committees" that reflect the needs of a variety of stakeholders (e.g., developers, managers, investors, users). Groups will identify and discuss potential concerns or risks associated with AI systems as well as develop recommendations to address them. Overall, the course aims to provide an interdisciplinary and hands-on introduction to AI auditing, allowing students to gain insights into the opportunities and challenges associated with the design and deployment of AI systems that minimize societal risk and increase their effectiveness.

ITAO 40520 Sports Analytics (1.5 Credit Hours)

Many industries are being created and transformed by using the techniques of business analytics. With the goal of studying these techniques in some depth, this course focuses on one such industry: sports. This industry has clearly benefited from the application of a wide variety of analytics techniques, and has the advantage of being widely and closely followed, with large amounts of easily-accessible real-world data. Topics for study in this course include how to evaluate players, rate teams, schedule leagues, and enhance coaching strategies. Assignments involve the hands-on use of a variety of techniques and tools, which are useful in most industries. Techniques and tools include data manipulation, probability, statistics, optimization, spreadsheets, and a powerful statistics package. A basic knowledge of Excel, statistics, and sports (in particular, baseball, basketball, and football) is assumed. (You do not have to be a sports fanatic.)

Prerequisites: ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34232

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics, Business Analytics or Business Intelligence.

Enrollment limited to students in the Mendoza College of Business college.

ITAO 40530 Human Performance Analytics (1.5 Credit Hours)

In recent years, the quantity of data available to sports teams and professional athletes has expanded significantly, it is now possible to extract detailed information about training sessions, games, and a range of the field metrics for elite athletes. This has led to the development of the field of human performance optimization. In this class we will learn how to extract insights from a range of data sources with the objective of maximizing athlete performance in competition. This includes optimizing physical readiness and avoiding injuries, long term player development and the identification of strategic advantages in competition which can be targeted by both athletes and coaches. We will use the R-coding language to develop pipelines for the analysis of the latest data sources. It is recommended that students have taken Machine Learning (ITAO 40420) before taking this class.

Prerequisites: (ITAO 30220 or ITAO 34220 or ITAO 34221) and (ITAO 30230 or ITAO 34230 or ITAO 34231 or ITAO 34232) and ITAO 40250

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics.

ITAO 40540 Survey of Software Engineering with Python (1.5 Credit Hours)

In this course, students will learn how to deploy machine learning models for other people to use. Students will be introduced to several different frameworks for putting models into production and visualizing relationships, all while becoming more familiar with Python, Visual Studio (VS) code, and GitHub. This class will also cover issues related to defensive programming and how to handle errors.

Prerequisites: ITAO 40230

ITAO 40550 Society and Networks (1.5 Credit Hours)

Broadly speaking, social networks are the patterns of relationships between actors. As actors in these systems are not independent, each actor influences the behaviors of others in the network. Our connections to others can determine a great many aspects of our lives, including whether or not we are employed, our happiness, and even our weight status. In this course, we will cover a variety of substantive areas in which networks can influence social life, including political behavior, innovation, inequality, power, and antagonism. Students in this course will explore the theory of network structure and function, understand how networks affect our lives and organizations, and will learn basic techniques for analyzing social network data. At the end of this class, students will have the knowledge and tools required to explore their own interests within the application of social networks.

Prerequisites: ITAO 30220 or ITAO 34220 or ITAO 34221

ITAO 40560 Data Engineering (1.5 Credit Hours)

Traditional computer workstations and servers were sufficient for performing data storage and analysis until the emergence of the internet and the exponential growth in data it facilitated. This is when companies were forced to rethink how storage and computation existed together. This dilemma gave birth to a plethora of technologies that would change the landscape of how we store, manipulate and analyze data today. In this course we will explore the evolution of these technologies. In addition, we will investigate how these technologies reshaped industries and created a space for data science to flourish at scale. We will cover the benefits and limitations of technologies like MapReduce, HPC, the Apache ecosystem, and a variety of databases. Minimal programming will be required for this course.

ITAO 40570 Urban Analytics (3 Credit Hours)

Urban regions will experience most future population growth, bringing opportunities and challenges. At the same time, statistical/machine learning has been evolving rapidly in the era of big data and provides tools to inform both data-driven decision-making and long-term planning in complex urban systems. Focusing on methodologies with statistical reasoning, the course brings in a large set of cutting-edge machine learning techniques combined with up-to-date urban case studies. We will start with data science essentials starting from data acquisition, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and visualization along with tools for reproducible reports. We next show how to build and interpret basic models; then we go beyond and focus on contemporary methods and techniques for handling large and complex urban data. By the end of the semester, students will master popular modern statistical methods, but also get equipped with hands-on skills in urban data analytics.

ITAO 40575 Pricing Analytics (3 Credit Hours)

This course will teach you how marketing managers make decisions about pricing and distribution, using data. We begin with understanding pricing and promoting to an individual customer, and use this foundation as we move to more aggregate decisions, such as setting regular and promoted prices at the product level and managing category pricing. A key part of the class is understanding the limitations of different types of data and how better planning can both simplify the analysis and increase your confidence in the findings. This class is designed to be very practical and hands-on. A working knowledge of statistics (e.g., t-test and regression analysis) is required and you will learn R for the analysis.

ITAO 40630 Sociotechnical Studies of Data Science (3 Credit Hours)

This course provides an introduction to the emergent field of social studies of data-intensive analytics for the examination of how "things are done with data." The goal is to cover a wide range of examples and practical applications to introduce questions of design and implementation, privacy and surveillance, as well as governance and stewardship of digital tools and infrastructures. Following the performative aspect of data, we will explore social, technical, political, and economic dynamics that involve data extraction, sharing, literacy, and analysis. From little to big data practices, we will examine at the interface level the professional and institutional applications, development histories, and current political economy of data to situate ourselves as engaged technologists and researchers, not detached critics or passive users. There are no prerequisites for this course: no previous experience in statistics or programming is needed, but independent study of the supplementary materials we provide is highly encouraged.

ITAO 40640 Introduction to Digital Forensics (3 Credit Hours)

Digital devices and communications are a part of daily life. This course will provide students with an introduction to the field of digital forensics and e-discovery. Topics to be covered include the scientific method of digital forensics, electronic discovery, legal issues related to digital forensics, computer forensics, and mobile forensics. Students will learn basic procedures along with hardware and software requirements for conducting digital forensics on computer media along with iOS and Android mobile devices.

ITAO 40650 Advanced Digital Forensics (3 Credit Hours)

This is an advanced level course designed for students who are already familiar with the basic principles of digital forensics, including Electronic Discovery and the forensic process of Acquisition, Processing, and Analysis. Students will learn and develop skills related to: acquiring smartphone, computer, removable media, and other forensic images; analyzing artifacts, file systems, and registry data; use of multiple methods and verification features to validate findings; and how to generate reports and distribute findings to share forensic results quickly and easily. This majority of instruction in this course is hands-on and requires that students be familiar with basic computer operation and navigation.

ITAO 40730 Cloud Computing (3 Credit Hours)

Cloud computing is a transformative force in the development of technology solutions that meet business requirements. Firms no longer need to make significant capital investments in large-scale data centers that sit idle for extended periods of time. The cloud model offers flexible, scalable, and cost-efficient access to computing resources on a just-in-time basis. In this course, we will explore the applications of cloud computing to common business problems. We will explore full-stack cloud solutions, including the use of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) technologies.

ITAO 40850 Analytics Capstone Project (3 Credit Hours)

Admission to this course is *by invitation only*. Students enrolled in this course will join a capstone team for the MSBR or MSBA-SA Specialized Masters Programs. This course provides an intensive, integrative experience while working with industry partners. Students will be presented with a real business problem and have access to relevant data. They will need to develop a thorough understanding of the problem and the associated data, then develop and execute a project work plan that analyzes the data available, develops actionable recommendations, and provides insight into the basis for those recommendations. Skills developed include the ability to provide effective communication of analytics results, and an understanding of key aspects of analytics solution deployment.

Students cannot enroll who have a program in Business Analytics.

ITAO 40860 Early Bridges to Data Science (3 Credit Hours)

This is a community-engaged capstone course for undergraduate Business Analytics students. It provides an intensive, integrative experience for students as they work with non-profit organizations and governmental agencies on real-world problems that have broad societal benefit. Some of the project focus areas will include (but are not limited to) public health, education, economic mobility, social justice, and environmental conservation. Students enrolled in the course will work in small teams and will serve as mentors to middle school students in an afterschool data science club run by the Boys and Girls Club. Each student will be assigned a mentee. The student’s responsibility will be to develop and implement an educational plan to onboard their mentee so that the mentee can contribute meaningfully to the team’s objectives. Each team will work in concert with a participating organization that will present them with a pressing societal problem or organizational need that requires some data analysis to solve or understand. The team's responsibility is to develop a thorough understanding of the problem, acquire and analyze the necessary data, draft a project plan, develop a solution, and communicate actionable recommendations to the relevant stakeholders. Project deliverables can include actionable data-driven insights, presentations, reports, and analytic models.

Prerequisites: ITAO 30220 or ITAO 34220 or ITAO 34221

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Business Analytics.

ITAO 40865 Early Bridges to Data Science Consultation (0 Credit Hours)

Faculty consultation for students in Early Bridges to Data Science. This 0-credit class is required to be taken alongside ITAO 40860 Early Bridges to Data Science. Early Bridges faculty consultants will provide assistance to the students in their field work.

ITAO 48499 Sports Analytics Research (1 Credit Hour)

This research-focused course offers students an in-depth exploration of sports analytics through hands-on experience with real-world data. Designed for those interested in the intersection of sports, data science, and statistical communication, this course emphasizes both analytical rigor and the skill of conveying complex findings in accessible terms. Throughout the semester, students will engage in data analysis projects that mirror industry practices, leveraging statistical techniques to uncover insights into athletic performance, strategy, and decision-making. A primary objective of this course is to develop students’ abilities to interpret and translate quantitative findings for broader audiences, preparing them to effectively communicate in a field where data-driven insights inform decision-making for diverse stakeholders. This course is ideal for those aspiring to careers in sports analytics, data science, or any field that values evidence-based decision-making and clear communication of technical results.

Course may be repeated.