Big Data and Information Systems

IS 690Q
Pace University
Seidenberg School of Computer Science & Information Systems
Academic Year 2015-2016

LOGISTICS
Class Time:
Class Location:

Wednesdays 6:10pm 9pm

Civic E313

Professor:
Contact Info:
Office Hours:

Abraham Guerra, D.P.S.

aguerra@pace.edu
By Appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Data and analytics are changing the world and the way we are making decisions, thanks to the enormous and
increasing amount of data available to us. Behind this vast amount of data lies the greatest potential to understand
reality and predict future events. As this potential is being realized, more organizations are investing substantial
amount of money in this discipline that is collectively known as Big Data.
Yet, we are facing several challenges, both technological and organizational. From a technology perspective, we see
an increasing need of collecting more data from sources both internal and external. This is widening the analytical
gap within the organization due to the inability to properly address the volume, variety and velocity of the data.
Moreover, organizations are struggling to streamline their advanced analytical capabilities and unable to efficiently
respond to the needs of the business of making better decisions faster by converting data into insight.
This course will explore the multifaceted reality of Big Data and students will not only learn the underlying principles
of data analytics, but also the organizational challenges that Big Data poses to an Enterprise. The objective of this
course is to introduce students to Data Science approaches to mine large amounts of information, the necessary
tools, and learn from real use cases what is necessary for a company to create Big Data Centers of Excellence in
order to successfully turn data analysis into competitive advantage.

TEXTBOOKS
1. D. Loshin, Big Data Analytics, Elsevier Science, 2013
2. A. Dasgupta, B. Bengfort, S. Murphy, T.Ojeda, Practical Data Science Cookbook, Packt Publishing, 2014

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Objective #1 Students will understand Big Data from a business perspective.
Objective #2 Students will understand Big Data from a technical perspective.
Objective #3 Students will understand Data Science.
Objective #4 Students will be able to think architecturally about Big Data solutions.

IS 690Q COURSE SYLLABUS

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GRADING POINT SYSTEM (SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS SEMESTER EVOLVES)

All work completed in the class will be assigned a point system. The maximum number of points you can earn during
the semester is 1000. The breakdown is as follows:
Category
Points
Weight %
Assignments
Midterm Exam
Final Exam
Total

300
350
350
1000

30%
35%
35%
100%

Final grades will be based on the following scale:

Points

0 - 599

600 - 649

700 729
1.7

730 769
2.0

770 - 799

800 - 829

830 - 869

1.0

650 699
1.3

Grade
Points
Letter
Grade

0.0
F

900 - 929

3.0

870 899
3.3

3.7

930 1000
4.0

2.3

2.7

D+

C-

C+

B-

B+

A-

STUDENT EXPECTATIONS
Attendance, Punctuality and Participation All students are expected to attend all classes, be on time and
actively participate in the class discussions. Should you encounter problems with attending class or arriving on time
please contact your advisor and well as your instructor to discuss. More than 3 absences will result in a failing
grade for the course.
Assignment Completion This is not a self-paced course. All assignments must be completed by their due dates.
Late assignments will not be graded unless you have received permission from your professor in advance.
Ethics honesty and integrity are expected in all approaches to learning. Students are expected to maintain
academic honesty. Please refer to our Handbook for guidelines on Academic Integrity.
Communication Students are expected to regularly check their Pace email accounts for communications from
their instructor. Should a student encounter any problems that would prevent them from completing assignments on
time they should make sure to communicate via email to their instructors in a timely manner.

PLANNED SCHEDULE
Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

Date
1/27
2/2
2/10
2/17
2/24
3/2
3/9
3/16
3/23
3/30
4/6
4/13
4/20
4/27
5/4

Topic
Intro to Big Data
Big Data A Business Perspective
Remote Week Big Data Use Cases
Storing Big Data
Remote Week NoSQL Lab
Processing Big Data
Remote Week Hadoop Lab
Midterm
Spring Break
Intro to Data Analytics & Data Science
Techniques in Data Analytics & Data Science
Remote Week Python/R Lab and Real-World Examples
Buffer week, wrap-up, Q&A
Remote Week Python/R and Real-World Examples
Final Exam

IS 690Q COURSE SYLLABUS

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