Key information
Price
US$2,750
Commitment
6-8 hours per week
Study mode
Tutor guided
Certificate of Achievement
Evidence your learning with a Certificate of Achievement from the University of Cambridge on successful completion.
Duration of 6 weeks
Regular weekly participation is key to gaining the most from your learning experience.
Discover more about this course from the expert(s) behind it
About the course
Dive into the world of big data, data science and machine learning – the forces revolutionising industries and driving the future of business. From personalised Netflix recommendations to Tesla’s self-driving cars, organisations that harness the potential of data are reshaping the future. And with AI-powered tools, you can go even further—enhancing data insights and scaling your analytics capabilities.
Every modern business generates vast amounts of data each day. How it’s used can make or break their success. Companies like Amazon and Google dominate their industries by mastering data-driven decision-making and leveraging user insights to stay ahead of the competition. Nearly every top organisation is investing in big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), recognising that making use of these technologies is key to maintaining a competitive advantage.
This six-week online course – led by top University of Cambridge academics – immerses you in the transformative world of data-driven decision-making so that you can stay ahead of the curve. Through practical, hands-on learning with tools like BigQuery and Colab notebooks, you’ll tackle real-world challenges using real-world data. Learn how to uncover business opportunities, gather and analyse the right data, and apply cutting-edge techniques to help you create product features and strategic solutions that deliver real-world results. All of this incorporating AI-driven automation and machine learning to enable faster and more scalable data-driven decision-making.
You’ll gain the skills to bridge the gap between technical teams and strategic leaders, driving innovation and leading data-driven change – working on a final project that you can take back to the workplace. Whether you’re creating products, solving complex problems or making decisions that define your company’s future, by the end of this course you’ll be ready to lead a data-powered future.

This course equals 48 hours of the CPD Certification Service(Opens in a new window) time.
In this course, you’ll learn to identify business problems and leverage data to inform solutions, fast-tracking the process with the use of AI. You’ll explore cloud data warehouses like Google BigQuery to gather large datasets, use Google Colab notebooks to run Python code, apply basic statistics and create visualisations. You’ll dive into regression models, including linear and deep neural networks, to analyse data. As you progress, you’ll focus on communicating data-driven decisions to stakeholders and reflect on the end-to-end process, applying your learning through a final assignment that showcases your skills.
Module 1: How data can resolve business issues
Module 2: Get the data
Module 3: Basic statistics and visualisations
Module 4: Regression models
Module 5: Using the outcomes
Module 6: Conclusion
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
communicate data-driven decisions with authority to key stakeholders
determine the main components of Big Data, Data Science and Machine Learning and how they work in a practical web tech environment
undertake data analysis, data cleansing and data visualisation for data-driven product development to resolve strategic business issues
interpret what the tools are telling you in terms of data trends and how to modify your approach
strategically apply a range of data tools and methods to analyse and resolve common business issues.
On successful completion of the course, you’ll receive a certificate from the University of Cambridge, along with valuable Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points and a digital badge to display on your LinkedIn profile. These Cambridge credentials not only showcase your knowledge and expertise, but also demonstrate your commitment to professional development – helping to future-proof your career.
This course is designed for professionals who want to harness the power of machine learning and data science and scale it with the power of AI to drive business success. It’s for people looking to apply big data in practical, business-focused ways – whether to enhance strategy, boost productivity or make more informed decisions. While particularly relevant to roles such as the ones outlined below, the course is beneficial to anyone seeking to apply AI and data science to real-world business challenges.
Product Managers: Learn to use data science and machine learning to inform product decisions, improve feature development and align strategies with actionable data insights.
Strategy Planners: Gain the skills to leverage big data and machine learning to shape data-driven strategies, optimise decision-making and identify growth opportunities that drive long-term business success.
Our flexible, online courses – delivered via a world-leading learning platform – reflect the University of Cambridge experience and values, with low learner-to-tutor ratios and academically rigorous standards.
Our online learning model is designed to help you advance your skills and specialise in emerging areas that address real-world challenges. We will help you build your network through an engaging and impactful learning journey that encourages collaboration with academics and fellow learners.
Courses are delivered in weekly modules, allowing you to plan your time effectively around existing commitments. The assessment criteria will be presented to you at the start of the course, so you can approach your studies with confidence and motivation, knowing exactly what’s expected of you and how to meet those expectations.
Throughout your online learning experience with Cambridge Advance Online, you’ll have digital access to a dedicated course tutor, an expert in the field, who will help steer your learning and provide you with support and guidance every step of the way.
Level of knowledge and experience
You’ll need a good level of spoken and written English to make the most of the course (we recommend English language proficiency equivalent to an IELTS score of 7).
Knowledge of data analytics tools would be helpful, as would a general understanding of data and data analysis.
Experience with SQL and Python is desirable to be able to interpret the results of statistics and visualisations and undertake analysis of regression models.
Materials and equipment
Participants will need to register for a free Google Cloud(Opens in a new window) account to access ‘BigQuery’.
Where possible, we ensure all of our course content is compliant to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and is subject to regular review. In some cases, however, our course process requires the use of proprietary third-party tools such as Google Colab, which are subject to their own accessibility compliance. If you have any individual requirements, specifically relating to the use of a screen reader, please contact us at uoc.online@cambridge.org to discuss further.
Sufficient internet speed (2 Mbps up/down) for video streaming.
What our learners are saying

Russ is a great teacher! I'm grateful that we had him on this course. He is so enthusiastic and happy to help in this learning process. Also, I think he set the bar very high - to develop both tech skills and business skills in one course is a very challenging task! But we managed to built those. Also, Malak is very helpful and ready to help anytime you need it.

I really enjoyed how the teaching was done through one example case study that builds into the assignment case study. This made it easier to follow and really tangible. The case studies were also very business relevant and not purely academic which was a benefit.

I am happy with the support received. The possibility to share our Google Colab notebook with the academic and tutor and ask questions on the battlefield is especially useful.
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