Unit description
Advanced Business Analysis and Design
This unit will build on earlier studies in Systems Analysis and Design with an emphasis on business process management. The concepts of business process management will be examined, and the techniques and tools that can be used to analyse, model and design business processes will be introduced. Agile system development methodologies will be contrasted with more formal approaches, and user experience design and software evaluation and selection will be covered.
Applied Statistics
This unit considers select topics from experimental design and survey methods, descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing and modelling for continuous and categorical variables. Throughout the unit, advanced statistical software will play an important role in data visualisation and analysis. Students will consider topics through the presentation of real research problems from a number of disciplines, gaining valuable experience in the application of statistics in a variety of contexts, including a project simulating statistical problems commonly encountered in the workplace.
Business Analytics
This unit helps students to understand how business analytics can guide and inform business decisions. In particular, it focuses on developing one’s ability to collect the data, analyse it and use the results of analysis in practice. Workshops of this programme are very practical and help students to develop analytical skills and be able to work on various business analysis tasks. Finally, this unit offers students challenging but exciting opportunities to enhance their business management skills, and work collaboratively and creatively.
Business Intelligence Application Development
Business intelligence (BI) has become a focus of organisations wishing to make more effective use of their data resources. This unit examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of BI, from the discovery, inventory, extraction and transformation of data sources through the common approaches to data analysis, to management reporting environments (MRE). The practical component of this unit will involve students creating a data warehouse and MRE, utilising a range of BI tools used in the industry.
Data Structures and Abstractions
This unit introduces abstract data structures (ADS) and associated algorithms. ADS such as arrays, graphs, lists, two-dimensional structures, trees and vectors are studied along with various representations, in addition to ADS that utilise these structures. Complexity analysis is used throughout the unit. The programming language currently used in this unit is C++.
Databases
This unit focuses on database design, implementation and management. Topics include data modelling, database administration, logical and physical database design, non-relational databases, recovery, relational model, security, standard query language (SQL) and transaction management. The theory material is complemented by practical work using common database management systems.
Introductory Calculus with Applications
This unit provides an introduction to differential and integral calculus, and basic ordinary differential equations. The concepts and techniques will be motivated and illustrated using mathematical models in engineering, the physical and biological sciences, commerce, economics and the social sciences. Other topics include complex numbers and their applications. The unit builds an awareness of the use of mathematical software to visualise functions.
Optimisation and Graph Theory
This unit covers topics in discrete mathematics that have relevance to computer science, including theory of graphs and trees, algorithms for graph problems (eg. shortest paths and spanning trees) and coding theory (for information transfer). The unit also covers topics in management science (also called operations research) that are important in industry and government, including formulation of linear programming problems, simplex method, sensitivity analysis, transportation problems, networks and project scheduling. Computer packages are used to aid understanding of various methods.
Principles of Computer Science
This unit is designed to develop problem-solving and programme design skills by using an object-oriented programming language. Major topics include algorithm design, procedural abstractions, use of libraries as collection of black-box code modules, the concepts of pre- and post conditions, strings, arrays, an introduction to object-oriented concepts including data abstraction, encapsulation, classes and object references, inheritance, introduction to recursion, streams and file input and output, and the definition and use of common classes — lists, stack and queues.
Probability and Statistical Inference
This unit examines relevant topics in probability and statistics theory, including distribution theory, mathematical expectation and variance, and likelihood inference. It derives common probability distributions and illustrates their uses, provides insight into the forms of expected values and variances for various distributions, and introduces likelihood inference, which provides a unified framework that underpins much of statistical inference.
Statistical Data Analysis
This unit introduces students to data collection methods and statistical analyses common in the life and health sciences. Topics include analysing relationships between variables, comparing measurements or proportions between groups, describing and comparing data distributions, nonparametric methods, probability and sampling distributions, sampling methods, statistical inference foundations (estimation and hypothesis testing), and summarising data with numbers and graphs. Throughout the unit, students will use statistical software, interpret its output and report their conclusions.
Systems Analysis and Design
This unit introduces methods and techniques for analysing problematic organisational situations, particularly those leading to the development of an information system, and it draws on both technical and organisational materials to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to design and implement an operational system.
