Applied Data Science MSc

MSc Applied Data Science is a new masters designed for those wanting to learn the skills required to gain insights from data.

The conversion course enables students with little prior exposure to computing to develop expertise and valuable skills that will prepare you for a career in the growing data science industry where there is significant demand for skilled personnel, both in the UK and internationally. (Students with an interest in cyber security may also consider our combined MSc Applied Data Science and Cyber Security). The importance of data science grows year on year, with sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, retail, finance and others reliant on the insights that accurate data capture and analysis can provide.

The course introduces you to a variety of languages essential to data science, including Python, and how to use different software packages such as scikit-learn. As you develop your understanding of how a wide variety of data science methods work, including clustering, regression, decision trees, and neural networks, you will learn how to apply them through hands-on examples from real-world settings.

Throughout your studies you’ll acquire the skills to work with large datasets, interpret and communicate results in the presence of bias and uncertainty, and build your range of soft skills for making presentations and writing.

You will gain the technical expertise to work with data and design and implement data analysis to find smart solutions for real-world problems. You will also explore the multitude of ethical, social, and political issues, the implication of artificial intelligence and advanced computing, and acquire the skills to analyse and critically evaluate ethical issues.

You will be taught by world experts in one of the top Computer Science departments in the UK, ranked among the top 25 UK Computer Science Department (The Complete University Guide, 2024). Our teachers are specialists in their field and much of our curriculum and research is informed by and closely linked with industry. You will learn about the most recent industrial developments in data science, machine learning and cyber security, with guest speakers from our extensive network of industry contacts, including our former MSc graduates.

You’ll graduate with capable skills to tackle complex problems, extract insights from data, uncover otherwise-hidden information, and use it to make informed decisions, giving you a competitive edge to pursue a successful career.

The Department of Computer Science at Royal Holloway has a rich history in the development of machine learning with members of the Centre for Reliable Machine Learning (set up in 1998 as the Computer Learning Research Centre) making key contributions to the development of support vector machines, conformal predictors, reinforcement learning and other important machine learning and artificial intelligence methods.

From time to time, we make changes to our courses to improve the student and learning experience, and this is particularly the case as we continue to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. If we make a significant change to your chosen course, we’ll let you know as soon as we can.