Data-related university courses to broaden your knowledge this summer

Summer is just around the corner and with it the well-deserved holidays. Undoubtedly, this time of year gives us time to rest, reconnect with the family and spend pleasant moments with our friends.

However, it is also a great opportunity to take advantage of and improve our knowledge of data and technology through the courses that different universities make available to us during these dates. Whether you are a student or a working professional, these types of courses can contribute to increase your training and help you gain competitive advantages in the labour market.

Below, we show you some examples of summer courses from Spanish universities on these topics. We have also included some online training, available all year round, which can be an excellent product to learn during the summer season.

Courses related to open data

We begin our compilation with the course 'Big & Open Data. Analysis and programming with R and Python' given by the Complutense University of Madrid. It will be held at the Fundación General UCM from 5 to 23 July, Monday to Friday from 9 am to 2 pm. This course is aimed at university students, teachers, researchers and professionals who wish to broaden and perfect their knowledge of this subject.

Data analysis and visualisation

If you are interested in learning the R language, the University of Santiago de Compostela organises two courses related to this subject, within the framework of its 'Universidade de Verán' The first one is 'Introduction to geographic and cartographic information systems with the R environment', which will be held from 6 to 9 July at the Faculty of Geography and History of Santiago de Compostela. You can consult all the information and the syllabus through this link.

The second is 'Visualisation and analysis of data with R', which will take place from 13 to 23 July at the Faculty of Mathematics of the USC. In this case, the university offers students the possibility of attending in two shifts (morning and afternoon). As you can see in the programme, statistics is one of the key aspects of this training.

If your field is social sciences and you want to learn how to handle data correctly, the course of the International University of Andalusia (UNIA) 'Techniques of data analysis in Humanities and Social Sciences' seeks to approach the use of new statistical and spatial techniques in research in these fields. It will be held from 23 to 26 August in classroom mode.

Big Data

Big Data is increasingly becoming one of the elements that contribute most to the acceleration of digital transformation. If you are interested in this field, you can opt for the course 'Big Data Geolocated: Tools for capture, analysis and visualisation' which will be given by the Complutense University of Madrid from 5 to 23 July from 9 am to 2 pm, in person at the Fundación General UCM.

Another option is the course 'Big Data: technological foundations and practical applications' organised by the University of Alicante, which will be held online from 19 to 23 July.

Artificial intelligence

The Government has recently launched the online course 'Elements of AI' in Spanish with the aim of promoting and improving the training of citizens in artificial intelligence. The Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence will implement this project in collaboration with the UNED,  which will provide the technical and academic support for this training. Elements of AI is a massive open educational project (MOOC) that aims to bring citizens knowledge and skills on Artificial Intelligence and its various applications. You can find out all the information about this course here. And if you want to start the training now, you can register through this link. The course is free of charge.

Another interesting training related to this field is the course 'Practical introduction to artificial intelligence and deep learning' organised by the International University of Andalusia (UNIA). It will be taught in person at the Antonio Machado headquarters in Baeza between 17 and 20 August 2021. Among its objectives, it offers students an overview of data processing models based on artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques, among others.

These are just a few examples of courses that are currently open for enrolment, although there are many more, as the offer is wide and varied. In addition, it should be remembered that summer has not yet begun and that new data-related courses could appear in the coming weeks. If you know of any other course that might be of interest, do not hesitate to leave us a comment below or write to us at contacto@datos.gob.es.