Course content
Master of Science Data Science for Business École Polytechnique-HEC
The program offers you a perfect balance of theory and practice. Elective courses, Certificates and numerous academic opportunities throughout the program allow you to customize the curriculum to your needs and aspirations.
Program Structure
The key aim of the teaching in this Joint Degree is to provide students with the tools needed to solve real problems, using structured and unstructured data masses, teaching them to ask the ‘right’ questions (both from statistics and ‘business’ perspectives) and to use the appropriate mathematical and IT tools to answer these questions.
Students will be equipped to shift constantly from data to knowledge, from knowledge to strategic decision, and from strategic decision to operational business implementations.
All these shifts carry with them numerous challenges that each require an interdisciplinary approach involving mathematics, IT, business strategy, and management skills.
‘Data science’ is based on the statistical processing of information (Statistics / Numerical statistics and Machine learning).
A wide range of statistical methods will be explored throughout the program, along with methods derived from applied mathematics.
The program aims to sharpen students’ understanding of how these methods link basic, essential theories that play a considerable role in practice.
The teaching will focus largely on the data produced by ‘real-life’ cases obtained in association with the program’s industrial partners. We will teach students the newest and most commonly used tools in this industry.
The program will also tackle the topics of data storage, as today’s companies need to rethink constantly the structure of their information systems without compromising performances and security. In particular, it is necessary to master the latest tools in data science, mainly Hadoop and MapReduce (Pig Latin, Hive, etc.)
For more details on the program at École Polytechnique, see their website.
Depending on the profile of the students, they will have access to mathematics foundation courses (mathematics, statistics and probabilities).
- Statistics
- Machine Learning
- Regression
- R for Data Science
- Data Camp Projects
- Database Management
- Statistics in Action
- Python for Data Science
A 4-month compulsory internship with a company in a data-related sector. Recent examples include Microsoft, Facebook, Orange, Capgemini...
- Applied Mathematics Centre (CMAP), Ecole Polytechnique
- Information Technology Laboratory (LIX), Ecole Polytechnique
HEC Paris offers a sharp focus on Data for Business for the second year of the curriculum through a range of business challenges and courses on how to create business value using data.
Core courses
- Data for Business Challenges: working on up-to-date business cases using data from a company
- Data Engineering Courses: using latest tools (Spark, Github, Dataiku...) to build and deploy models
- Advanced Coding in Python for Machine Learning
- Reinforcement Learning and Advanced Deep Learning
- Data Science for Management Courses: Data and Finance, Data and Sustainability, Data and Legal Questions, Data and Ethics...
During the second year at HEC Paris, students will have the opportunity to open their minds by being exposed to different subjects with students from other HEC Paris Majors: Entrepreneurs, MSc International Finance, MSc Strategic Management, MSc Sustainability and Social Innovation, etc. This is a great opportunity to experience how Data Science and AI can impact different domains.
Three-week challenges enabling students to work in teams on real and up-to-date business issues using data from a company and providing a relevant business solution to the company's top management.
- Data Entrepreneurship: creating your own startup by joining the HEC Startup Launchpad
- Data Management: strengthening your expertise in data science to develop a company business from data collection to model deployment
- Data Consulting: developing key skills to support and advise companies in their data journey
Two learning expeditions are organized to discover companies’ diverse approaches to data-science: Paris and a European data hub (e.g. London)
The second year is completed with a compulsory research paper. Students will work on a specific subject during 4 months with the help of a tutor.
You will also have the opportunity to obtain a certificate in the following areas, in addition to your degree:
- Data for Management
- Digital Entrepreneurship
- Digital Transformation
- Energy and Finance
- Excellence in Client Experience
- Luxury
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Inclusive and Social Business
Academic Team
In the Digital Age, everything has become information: data from social media, email exchanges, consumption habits, GPS data, bank transactions… All kinds of organizations are converting this vast amount of information into strategic resources. How should these data be stored? How can they be used? These questions impact the profit contributions of many functions within companies (marketing, sales, logistics, risk management) and, therefore, must be addressed.
HEC Paris and École Polytechnique, 2 globally-recognized institutions, have united forces to create a joint degree specifically aimed at providing students with strong skills in both Data Science and Business. This 2-year MSc program has been designed to combine high-level expertise in the engineering field, to train students in data sciences, with proficiency in the business field, to form data managers capable of taking strategic decisions based on data resources.
Profiles specialized in data science are in such high demand that often companies recruit students even before they graduate. This degree will give you an invaluable asset so that you may become a key stakeholder in the digital transformation and evolve successfully in your business career.
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Erwan Le Pennec, Scientific Director, |
Vincent Fraitot, Scientific Director HEC Paris |
HEC Paris and École Polytechnique both boast world-class faculty.
HEC Paris’ permanent faculty all come from the world’s leading research universities such as Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, Wharton, Yale, etc. They regularly share their work in top academic journals and international conferences. 64% are non-French and represent 29 different nationalities.
École Polytechnique has 670 full-time faculty, including 39% of international.
Evolve in a Dynamic Research Ecosystem
Pushing the frontier of knowledge is a shared priority between HEC Paris and École Polytechnique. Both institutions have created specialized research units in order to provide major interdisciplinary contributions to management, innovation, science, technology, and society. École Polytechnique has for example 22 joint laboratories with the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) or other research institutions, such as the CEA, INRIA, INSERM, Université Paris-Sud, ENSTA ParisTech and UPMC.
HEC Paris has launched chairs with major companies on contemporary issues such as leadership, innovation, and sustainability, but also interdisciplinary research centers:
- the Society and Organizations Center, which aims at offering new ways of understanding the world and helping organizations to reconcile economic priorities with a new series of imperatives
- the Entrepreneurship Center, which promotes entrepreneurship through innovative HEC Paris programs, start-ups support, academic and business partnerships
- the Digital Transformation Center, which addresses the challenges of digital transformation, and brings together businesses and students to work directly on such issues.
Faculty
The HEC Paris faculty consists of over 160 professors, comprising more than 25 different nationalities, with Ph.D.’s from leading universities across the world. They work in all major areas of economics and management.
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