Summer courses focused on open data, analytics and Big Data

Summer is coming and, as usual, it is time for holidays. A date marked on our agenda to rest, sightseeing or be with our loved ones. But it is also a good opportunity to improve our knowledge in specific fields, through the different summer courses that universities and schools put at our disposal.

Among the many summer courses topic, it should be noted that more and more centres are including training programs related to open data, analytics and Big Data. This fact is not surprising, because, as we have said on previous occasions, there is a great demand for professionals focused on these fields. Although these subjects are gradually included in the regulated offer, there are many students who make the most of the summer to complement their training and gain competitive advantages to improve their position in the labour market.

Open data courses

This year, we highlight the offer of open data courses focused on their value to promote open government. This is the case of the Transparency through data course, which will take place between June 26th and 28^th, organized by the Universitat Politècnica de València for the third year in a row. This course will address citizen participation in political life through open data, and its reuse to create valuable applications related to social justice or citizen privacy, among other issues.

On the same dates, the course Technopolitics, digital democracy and new social movements, of the International University of Andalusia, is held in Seville. Students will analyse for two days (June 26th and 27th) the influence of technology on democracy through concepts such as technopolitics, digital democracy, open data or open government.

Big data and data analysis

The offer of Big Data courses is increasingly focused on use cases related to this technology. As an example, the course Big Data: technological foundations and practical applications, of the University of Alicante. This course seeks to introduce the concept of Big Data through its applications in the real world, making known various storage and processing techniques used for working with massive data, in a practical way. This course will take place from July 16th to 20th.

In addition, it can be seen that there are more and more specific courses that address particular Big Data applications in specific fields. This is the case of the Big Data and Social Sciences Course, held by the University of Oviedo from September 10th to 12th. This course focuses on the opportunities and challenges of using large-scale datasets in the social sciences. During the course, a case study on open data will be worked on, with the objective that the students understand the whole process of an investigation.

For its part, the University of Extremadura has launched the course Big Data and Machine Learning together with open data sources to specialize the agricultural and livestock sector from September 25th to 27th. This course will discuss the technology behind aspects such as the monitoring of the growth of crops or animals, the traceability of the products, the identification of the products quality, the prediction of pests or the optimization of fertilizers use, among others.

Data analysis tools courses

Finally, we also want to highlight the courses offer focused on data analysis and visualization tools.

One more year, the Complutense University of Madrid offers its Geolocated Big Data course: tools for the capture, analysis and visualization from 9th to 27th July, where students will download and process geolocated data from sources such as social networks, GPS or even drones.

This university also offers, for the fifth year in a row, its BIG & OPEN DATA course. Analysis and Programming with R and Python from 9th to 27th July. This course is based on a basic level and is aimed at students from different branches, from geography and economics to engineering and computing. In recent years, R has become the leading software tool for statistical analysis, so more and more schools offer courses related to this subject. The Pompeu Fabra University also joins this list with the Modern Satation Computing in R course, from June 25th to July 27th.

In addition, the University of Cantabria offers a Big Data with Python workshop, from July 30th to August 3th, where different practical cases of data management and analysis will be addressed. This course is aimed at students in the final years of the physics, mathematics, telecommunications and industrial degrees and requires prior programming knowledge.

These are just some examples of courses, but the offer is very broad. It is therefore a good time for those interested in enriching their professional profile to analyze which areas of competence they want to improve and find the course that best meets their needs.