Programs

Topics covered by this specialization include basic object-oriented programming, the analysis of asymptotic algorithmic run times, and the implementation of basic data structures including arrays, hash tables, linked lists, trees, heaps and graphs, as well as algorithms for traversals, rebalancing and shortest paths. This course is offered by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (via Coursera).

In this digital age, more companies are making use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to increase productivity. But as a result of this shift, organizations face an entirely different leadership challenge. What do leaders need to know to effectively integrate AI into their organizations? And how do leaders design organizational structures that take into account the roles of humans and machines in integrated teams? If you are a manager or leader of a technical team, analytics group, or any other function that leverages data science, this program will help you to better understand AI and the opportunities and risks of an AI-driven organization.

This specialization gives current or aspiring IT professionals an overview of the features, benefits, and capabilities of Amazon Web Services (AWS). As you proceed through these four interconnected courses, you will gain a more vivid understanding of core AWS services, key AWS security concepts, strategies for migrating from on-premises to AWS, and basics of building serverless applications with AWS. Additionally, you will have opportunities to practice what you have learned by completing labs and exercises developed by AWS technical instructors.

Northwestern’s Business Analytics for Decision Makers certificate program program is geared to mid- and upper-level managers in strategic planning, analytics, operations, and many other roles, who need to better understand and communicate the value that business analytics can bring to their organization. In this six-week course, students will work to build initial action plans to enhance the application of analytics within their organizations by investigating aspects of analytics including requirements, benefits, limits, and organizational effects. This investigation will include assessing the competitive environment and planning context; exploring the skills needed to implement and communicate analytics’ value across the organization; categorizing the implications of planning coming out of analytics; integrating analytics with other strategic processes; and defining data and skilled resource needs across the organization and beyond.  

Northwestern’s Business Analytics Online Certificate Program is designed for professionals in the field of analytics who aspire to managerial or leadership roles in their organizations. Students will gain a practical understanding of how to use the business analytics process to harness the power of big data to gain actionable business insights. They will not only learn the mathematics behind the analytics, but how analytics drives business decisions and competitive advantage. In addition, students will learn best practices on communicating results to management so that the "actionable insight" isn't lost in the analysis.  

We live in a day when data is quite literally raining from the sky. Artisanal data analyses that rely on point-and-click methods make it hard to keep up with the increasing number of analyses that are needed in nearly every organization and department.

The Analytics iCademy has a variety of competencies that provide foundational and advanced resources to ease the burden you face when learning about data analytics. Within each competency, skills are organized based on the analytic platform that you want to learn, such as Excel, R, or Python. Each skill is designed so that you can complete it in a relatively short amount of time and at your own pace, and when you’re ready to do so.

This program is designed for students seeking knowledge that will prepare them for entry level careers in cyber security and the certificate awards CEU.

Gain foundational knowledge and essential skills for all cybersecurity domains, including info security, systems security, network security, ethics and laws, and defense and mitigation techniques used in protecting businesses. This is a self-paced course.

The Cloud Computing specialization takes you on a tour through cloud computing systems. We start in in the middle layer with Cloud Computing Concepts covering core distributed systems concepts used inside clouds, move to the upper layer of Cloud Applications and finally to the lower layer of Cloud Networking. We conclude with a project that allows you to apply the skills you've learned throughout the courses. This course is offered by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (via Coursera). Completion of this Specialization results in a University of Illinois certificate.

Students in Northwestern’s Communication with Data graduate certificate program build the data and analytics skills needed to communicate complex data accurately and effectively. The courses in this certificate are designed to help those in communication roles work with data analysts within their organizations to translate data into images and stories that executives and customers can understand. Credit earned in this four-course certificate can be applied to Northwestern’s MS in Information Design and Strategy program. Classes are held entirely online.

Cybersecurity is a growing field that spans across all industries. It is also a culture – a constantly evolving and expanding niche – specially suited to life-long learners, problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and collaborators. To help fill the need for qualified cybersecurity professionals, City Colleges of Chicago offers a cybersecurity boot camp to people looking to take their career to the next level. This boot camp provides both expert instruction and the equipment necessary for students to pass the CompTIA Security+ certification exam, a highly valued industry certification. Classes will take place at Harold Washington College, Wilbur Wright College, and Kennedy-King College.

The Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate in Power BI (MCSA) certification validates the ability to create and optimize data visualization techniques via specific tool types. This certification ensures that students can create and identify key performance indicators, and successfully manipulate and cleanse data.

Students in the Data Analytics for Business Professionals certificate acquire technical analytics communication skills, enabling them to effectively manage analytics teams, translate analysis into business objectives, and improve their evidence-based decision-making abilities. Data Understanding and Preparation, the first core course in the program, guides students through sourcing, preparing, and manipulating their data. In the next course, Data Visualization and Storytelling, students will learn to apply data analysis, data visualization and data storytelling methods to analyze and describe patterns, and to iteratively form and test hypotheses related to the business questions. Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning, the final core course in the program, introduces students to the theory and practice of machine learning. Students will learn how to implement the most popular machine-learning techniques in use today to discover patterns in their data and develop models to predict future outcomes.

To enroll with the discounted TechReady Illinois price, email Karine Bravis at [email protected] For more information about the program, visit the program webpage.

The Data Mining specialization teaches data mining techniques for both structured data which conform to a clearly defined schema, and unstructured data which exist in the form of natural language text. Specific course topics include pattern discovery, clustering, text retrieval, text mining and analytics, and data visualization. The Capstone project task is to solve real-world data mining challenges using a restaurant review data set from Yelp. This course is offered by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (via Coursera). Completion of this Specialization results in a University of Illinois certificate.  

City Colleges of Chicago offers an Apple DiS/Swift coding class to qualified applicants. Classes are based at Harold Washington College in the Loop, and Kennedy-King College in Englewood, providing both expert instruction and the equipment necessary for students to learn how to create apps for iPhone® and iPad®. The course uses the Develop in Swift Explorations curriculum designed by Apple. Once you’ve successfully completed this course, you may go on to take the next two levels in Apple’s coding curriculum pathway.

A coding bootcamp designed specifically with the military veteran community in mind, Code Platoon's full-stack program enables veterans to gain viable skills for launching a career in the software development world. Code Platoon takes beginners and novices and brings them to an expert-level of code writing. In addition to a highly active alumni association that works towards helping future graduates find employment, we have a career services approach that begins working with the student well before the end of the program to plot out a course for the student (where they want to live, what end of the industry they want to work in, etc.) and help them network and find job leads. Furthermore, for our students who are willing to stay in Chicago, we are proud to be the only coding school able to offer paid internships with companies who have partnered with Code Platoon. Code Platoon also offers free online courses on introductory coding.

The Certificate in Advanced Software Development program is designed for students seeking to enhance their skills as a software developer. The certificate requires completion of three graduate courses in topics such as software development, application development, software testing and maintenance, project management, and others. Students may apply credits earned in the certificate program toward a graduate degree.

Students in Northwestern’s Graduate Certificate in Analytics and Modeling program build foundational skills and knowledge in preparation for data science and analytics work in virtually any industry. Students learn techniques to test real-world predictions about data — exploring data, identifying appropriate models, and validating those models. With a focus on traditional methods of applied statistics, this certificate prepares data scientists to utilize algorithms for predictive modeling and analytics, developing models for marketing, finance, and other business applications. Credit earned in this four-course certificate can be applied to Northwestern’s MS in Data Science program. Classes are held entirely online.

Students in Northwestern’s Graduate Certificate in Analytics Management program build foundational skills and knowledge in preparation for data science and analytics work in virtually any industry. Analytics managers bridge the work of analysts and modelers with business operations and strategy to help address future business needs, identify business opportunities, and translate the work of data scientists into language that business management understands. This certificate equips data scientists with the communication and management strategies needed to be data-driven leaders who utilize models, analyses, and statistical data to improve business performance. Credit earned in this four-course certificate can be applied to Northwestern’s MS in Data Science program. Classes are held entirely online.

Students in Northwestern’s Data Engineering graduate certificate program add to their data science, engineering, or computer science backgrounds by learning to utilize system-wide problem-solving skills, choose hardware systems, and build software systems for implementing models made by data analysts to scale in production systems. Credit earned in this four-course certificate can be applied to Northwestern’s MS in Data Science program. Classes are held entirely online.

The Certificate in Distributed and Cloud Computing is intended for students who are interested in learning about distributed systems and how they are applied to real world problems, as well as how emerging cloud computing technologies can be used to implement some of the world’s most popular services and applications.

Students in Northwestern’s Graduate Certificate in Health Data Science build foundational data science skills (R programming, statistical analysis, data modeling) that are increasingly essential for many industries, and also gain exposure to and practice with the unique complexities of health data and the care that must be taken in handling them. Courses in statistical analysis and predictive modeling provide hands-on experience analyzing real health data sets, which are often messy and unstructured, while courses in data visualization and health analytics leadership emphasize how to effectively communicate analytics insights to stakeholders across an organization. Credit earned in this four-course certificate can be applied to Northwestern’s MS in Health Analytics or MS in Data Science programs. Classes are held entirely online.

The Certificate in Software Engineering is intended for students who want to increase their knowledge and skills in software design, development, and maintenance.

When it comes to query language for relational database management systems, SQL is the industry benchmark. This hands-on course will help you advance your knowledge and keep pace with today's SQL standards. You will practice designing, writing, and testing complex SQL queries to execute on a practice database using SQL Server Express.

Businesses run on data, and data offers little value without analytics. The ability to process data to make predictions about the behavior of individuals or markets, to diagnose systems or situations, or to prescribe actions for people or processes drives business today. Increasingly many businesses are striving to become “data-driven”, proactively relying more on cold hard information and sophisticated algorithms than upon the gut instinct or slow reactions of humans.

This course will show you how to create basic programming structures including decisions and loops. Then you will move on to more advanced topics such as object-oriented programming with classes and exceptions. In addition, you will explore unique Python data structures such as tuples and dictionaries. You will even learn how to create Python programs with graphic elements that range from simple circles and squares to graphical user interface (GUI) objects like buttons and labels.

i.c.stars provides a paid ($200/week) 16-week project-based internship at our learning studio (currently virtual) to help underserved young adults jump start their careers in technology. This includes daily relationship-building and mentorship from industry practitioners. Graduates of i.c.stars see a 300% earnings increase and are working in roles such as QA Analyst at US Foods, Information Security Apprentice at Accenture, Associate Software Engineering at Discover, among others. Badging and industry certifications depend on the client project, and have included UiPath (robotic process automation platform), Enterprise Security Fundamentals, Querying data with Transact-SQL. Support continues for 20-months, combining professional development, mentoring and continuing access to wrap around support. In addition, students can achieve 24 prior learning credit hours with a higher education institution.

Northwestern’s Math for Data Science post-baccalaureate certificate program provides students and professionals who are seeking to build math and analysis proficiency with an excellent opportunity to strengthen their quantitative background for graduate school or to enhance their data analysis skills for their careers. Consisting of courses in applied mathematics, statistics, and calculus, the program provides students with a quantitative foundation for data analysis—a critical skillset that is applicable to a wide range of industries.

Web development is a fast-growing career track, and Northwestern Coding Boot Camp teaches you the specialized skills you need to tap into this rewarding industry. Through a fast-paced, immersive curriculum, you’ll learn the skills needed to become proficient in front end and back end technologies. Learning to code is an intensive undertaking. If you are eager to expand your knowledge and join the tech world, seeking to advance or change careers, and most importantly are ready to roll up your sleeves and work hard, then this could be the life-changing move you’ve been looking for. At Northwestern Boot Camps, you’ll be supported by a dedicated career services team of experienced professionals consisting of a Career Director and Career Material Advisor. Collectively, they will prepare you to be “employer competitive” through a series of career readiness milestones throughout the class. 

Big Data needs big protection. That’s because 90 percent of the world’s data has been created in just the last two years. And as computer networks grow, so too does the quantity of vulnerable information. Northwestern Cybersecurity Boot Camp is a challenging, part-time program that takes a multidisciplinary approach in attaining proficiency in IT, networking, and modern information security throughout the course of 24 intensive weeks. At Northwestern Boot Camps, you’ll be supported by a dedicated career services team of experienced professionals consisting of a Career Director and Career Material Advisor. Collectively, they will prepare you to be “employer competitive” through a series of career readiness milestones throughout the class.

Northwestern Data Science and Visualization Boot Camp puts the student experience first, teaching you the knowledge and skills to conduct analytics on a wide array of real-world problems. Through an immersive remote classroom experience, students will dive into in-demand technologies like Intermediate Excel, Python, JavaScript (D3.js, Leaflet.js), HTML5/CSS, API Interactions, SQL, Tableau, Fundamental Statistics, Machine Learning, R, Git/GitHub, and more. Collaborating with your classmates and also working individually, you’ll take your new skills and put them to use on comprehensive projects. At Northwestern Boot Camps, you’ll be supported by a dedicated career services team of experienced professionals consisting of a Career Director and Career Material Advisor. Collectively, they will prepare you to be “employer competitive” through a series of career readiness milestones throughout the class.

The field of finance is evolving. Financial services firms, insurance agencies, and investment banks are increasingly at the intersection of data and technology, harnessing programming, machine learning, Big Data, and blockchain to conduct business. You will obtain marketable skills, learning how these fundamental concepts are leveraged within financial fields from financial planning to hedge funds, as well as best practices for using these skills to add value to an organization. At Northwestern Boot Camps, you’ll be supported by a dedicated career services team of experienced professionals consisting of a Career Director and Career Material Advisor. Collectively, they will prepare you to be “employer competitive” through a series of career readiness milestones throughout the class.

The University of Chicago’s eight-week Python for Data Science program introduces the basic concepts of Python as a programming language. This highly technical program is project-based at its core and you will be presented with many practical examples before being afforded an opportunity to create and run your own Python projects. 

Catalyte believes exceptional technology talent can come from unexpected places. The company delivers sustainable and diverse tech talent that powers transformational software engineering ‒ when, where and how it’s needed. With our proprietary Odyssey workforce development platform we find, develop and support a new talent pool of great software engineers. With development centers in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix-Scottsdale, and Portland, Ore., Catalyte creates local, cost-effective, predictable, diverse and sustainable technology workforces to help companies meet their technology objectives today and into the future.

Watch our founder tell the Catalyte Story.

Students in the graduate certificate in Sports Analytics build the skills necessary to work in today’s data-intensive and data-driven sports world. This online certificate provides the technical and leadership training required for key positions in sports team management and analytics. Building upon Northwestern's graduate program in data science, it reviews key technologies in analytics and modeling, probability theory, applied mathematics, statistics and programming. It shows how analytic techniques may be used in evaluating player and team performance and in sports team administration. Credit earned in this four-course certificate can be applied to Northwestern’s MA in Sports Administration or MS in Data Science programs. Classes are held entirely online.

In this course, you will explore how the cloud works, what drives its incredible growth, and how you can use cloud services. You will start by looking at the building blocks of the cloud, where it started, and how it transitioned. You will gain a clear understanding of IaaS (infrastructure), SaaS (software), and PaaS (platforms), and examine why each may be attractive to some businesses, but not to others. You will also learn about the different kinds of clouds (public, private, and hybrid).