Director's Message

Each day our society creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – that’s 2.5 followed by 18 zeroes. With this glut of data, the need to make sense of it becomes more acute.

In this Internet of Things (IoT) era, where humans and machines are going to coexist, decisions are largely going to be driven by data. In the current scenario, to compete better and to reduce the turnaround time for decision-making, it is essential to integrate methods of business analytics into the organisations’ decision-making process.

Data science – which is considered both the art and science of making data-driven decisions – is playing a significant part in the way businesses function, and it impacts all walks of life. Globally, every organisation has made data science its top priority, but the fact remains that there is a severe dearth of data science skill sets across the world.

The visionary leadership team of NMIMS, recognising the need to cater to the demands of the data science industry, started the Centre of Excellence for Analytics & Data Science in 2019. NMIMS Deemed-to-be-University, with its four decades of legacy in providing quality education to students, also acknowledges its role in the transformation of society.

The centre was established with the objective of achieving excellence in the domains of analytics and data science through education, research, training and consultancy. The centre is designed as a cross-functional, shared services structure that fuels innovative development and deployment of curriculum, projects, teaching, and training across the needs of the schools of NMIMS, as well as the industry in the fields of analytics, data sciences, and allied areas such as digital transformation.

Presently, the centre offers two flagships program: the MBA in Business Analytics program (two-year full time) since 2019, and MBA in Digital Transformation program (two-year full time) offered from 2021. Both the programs are benchmarked against the best in the world, and differentiated by their industry-driven curricula which focuses on the employability of students.

The well-crafted program delivery is interspersed with contemporary pedagogy, practitioners’ sessions, a learner-centred summer internship program, and more. Projects and hackathons mentored by seasoned experts and dedicated faculty members, capstone projects, data-driven entrepreneurial initiatives in collaboration with Atal Incubation Centre (AIC-NMIMS), along with dedicated placement support makes the programs unmatched.

Both the MBA programs impart value-based education since the future requires collaboration with robots. While Artificial Intelligence and robots can be as effective as the algorithm fed into it, humans are entrusted with taking the final call. Hence, nearly all the courses provided include ethical and value-based perspectives that shape managers who take holistic decisions based on human values and principles. Furthermore, the program structure is designed to understand management, analytics, and digital transformation in its entirety.

The core strength of NMIMS always has been its diverse professors – each with over two decades of experience. All faculty members are experts in their chosen domains and have an excellent publication record. Additionally, most of our professors work closely with industry-driven consultancy projects.

The state-of-the-art infrastructure complements the learning experience, and it includes computing facilities, e-resources, Bloomberg terminals, academic databases, acoustically-built lecture theatres and classrooms, a data analytics lab equipped with the latest analytics software, cloud computing infrastructure, and a big data lab.

The institute fosters regular events to connect with the industry. Master classes, leadership talks, and subjects co-taught by industry practitioners – including evaluation of projects by industry executives – provide excellent value addition to students to keep abreast with current trends of the industry. Additionally, Mumbai city – being the economic capital of the nation – offers immense locational advantage in terms of access to industry resources.

In its aim to provide holistic education, COE hosts students from diverse backgrounds with impeccable academic credentials. Some of the added advantages of NMIMS COE are the opportunities to work with a diverse group of peers, collaborative learning with highly motivated and experienced students, opportunities to network with a vast pool of successful alumni, chances to participate in various student clubs to express the unique skills and talents, and the scope to form various Special Interest Groups (SIG).

Lastly, COE takes pleasure in placing its students in a broad spectrum of analytics profiles, for internships and final placements, with reputed companies in the data science domain. The dedicated placement team provides pre-placement training, encourages the active involvement of the student placement committee in placement processes, and secures compensation packages matched with best in the industry. The placement team also provides industry inputs that help COE to constantly update the curricula to account for current changes and trends in industry. This enables each of our programs to have an industry-relevant curriculum at all times.

I assure you that the well-crafted and the rigorous program delivery will bring out the best in you. The frequently updated curriculum will serve as a launch pad to propel you towards achieving excellence in the spheres of data science and digital transformation.

I proudly welcome the future data scientists and technologists of COE-A&DS to exhibit their brilliance, define the future of the field, and become the architects of a digitally transformed society!