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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2015/2016

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Business School : Common Courses (Management School)

Postgraduate Course: Data Mining (CMSE11118)

Course Outline
SchoolBusiness School CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits15 ECTS Credits7.5
SummaryThis course is designed to give students an overview of data mining, with a focus on its use and value along with a taxonomy of data mining techniques.
Course description The course provides students with an appreciation of the uses of data mining software in solving business decision problems. Students will gain knowledge of theoretical background to several of the commonly used data mining techniques and will learn about the application of data mining as well as acquiring practical skills in the use of data mining algorithms.

Syllabus
Overview of data mining
Data visualisation and pre-processing
Data mining in practice
Models and patterns
Introduction to data mining using SPSS
Classification trees
Predictive modelling
Descriptive modelling
Classification models
Clustering

Student Learning Experience
Students will participate in lectures where they will be introduced to the principles and techniques involved in data mining, engage in discussion inside and outside of the classroom, complete practical exercises which will reinforce the ideas discussed in lectures, produce and present, in the form of a poster, an analysis of a problem using a real world dataset, perform independent reading and research and critically reflect on their own learning experiences.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed: Business Statistics and Forecasting (CMSE11080)
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements For Business School PG students only, or by special permission of the School. Please contact the course secretary.
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 150 ( Lecture Hours 20, Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 5, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 3, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 120 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 80 %, Coursework 20 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Assessment of this course is through an exam (weighted 80%) and a project (weighted 20%).
Feedback All students will be given at least one formative feedback or feedforward event for every course they undertake, provided during the semester in which the course is taken and in time to be useful in the completion of summative work on the course. Such feedback may be at course or programme level, but must include input of relevance to each course in the latter case.

Feedback on formative assessed work will be provided within 15 working days of submission, or in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course, whichever is sooner. Summative marks will be returned on a published timetable, which has been made clear to students at the start of the academic year.

Students will gain feedback on their understanding of the material when they discuss their answers to the tutorial questions in the tutorials. Students may also ask questions in Lectures to assess their knowledge.

Feedback Format will comprise continuous feedback on practical work, Coursework feedback and generic exam feedback.
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)Data Mining2:00
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Critically evaluate the value and application of data mining for business and customer relationship management.
  2. Critically disuss the variety of methods constituting data mining including data analysis, statistical methods, machine learning and model validation techniques.
  3. Understand and apply the foundations of modelling approaches such as linear regression, linear classifiers, decision tree models and clustering.
  4. Communicate technically complex issues coherently and precisely.
Reading List
Han, J., Kamber, M. and Pei, J (2012) Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques. Morgan Kaufmann.

Hand, D., Mannila, H. and Smyth, P. (2001) Principles of Data Mining. MIT Press: Massachusets.

It covers a large amount of ground and does not focus too much on the Computer Science side of Data Mining. It does include a certain amount of the mathematics underpinning Data Mining; however, students should not be too daunted by this as we will be working through the relevant material in lectures. I would recommend examining the Hub copy of this text before purchasing as you may consider it to be too theoretical to be of immediate use.

Witten, I. H. and Frank, E. (2005) Data Mining: Practical machine learning tools and techniques (2nd ed.) Margan Kaufmann: USA.

Duda, R. O., Hart, P. E. and Stork, D. G. (2001) Pattern Classification (2nd ed.) Wiley-Interscience: USA.

Duda et al, provides a large amount of information on clustering techniques and so is useful for one of the lectures.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Cognitive Skills:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
- to critically discuss and explain the benefits and limitations of different data mining techniques;
- to present and describe mathematical specifications of several commonly used data mining techniques.

Subject Specific Skills:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
- develop the ability to define a data mining problem, evaluate methodologies and propose solutions;
- learn how to interpret and validate the result of an application of data mining;
- be able to use a software package to implement data mining solutions, including data analysis, modelling and validation;
- develop computing skills required for data mining;
- learn how to present data mining results and communicate technical issues coherently.
KeywordsMark-DM
Contacts
Course organiserDr Daniel Black
Tel: (0131 6)51 1491
Email:
Course secretaryMiss Ashley Harper
Tel: (0131 6)51 5671
Email:
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