Data Management and Analytics Specialisation

This specialisation on Data Management and Analytics forms part of the 2-year Computer Science Master's programme at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Transcript

1. 2 December 2005 Data Management and Analytics Infogroep Seminar 2026 Prof. Dr. Beat Signer Prof. Dr. Bas Ketsman Prof. Dr. Pieter Libin
2. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 2 May 20, 2026 Data Management and Analytics (DAMA) "Our goal is to prepare students for the future challenges in managing and analysing the rapidly growing amounts of data that is produced manually by humans as well as automat- ically generated by, for example, sensors in emerging Internet of Things solutions, data capturing on the Web or as an outcome of scientific experiments. Thereby, we focus on the scientific aspects and concepts for scalable data man- agement solutions, information retrieval and data mining as well as different information visualisation and interaction techniques rather than on existing mainstream technologies, and provide students the necessary education for a future career as data scientists and data engineers."
3. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 3 May 20, 2026 Data Management Big Data systems Data Management and Analytics (DAMA) … scalable data management advanced query processing (e.g. approximate query processing) large-scale analytical database systems data integration and interoperability innovative data storage exploratory search complex data exploration and analysis information retrieval visual data discovery data mining interactive data processing information visualisation data perceptualisation cross-media technologies mixed reality and TUIs personal information management hypermedia and linked data DAMA Human-Data Interaction Data Processing and Discovery
4. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 4 May 20, 2026 The 2025 MAD Landscape https://mad.firstmark.com
5. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 5 May 20, 2026
6. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 6 May 20, 2026 Job and Career Paths ▪ (Big) Data Engineer/Architect ▪ data pipelines and infrastructure ▪ Data Analyst/BI Analyst ▪ extracting insights from data ▪ Data Scientist ▪ predictive modelling and machine learning ▪ (Analytics) Consultant ▪ help companies implement data-driven strategies ▪ Data Governance/Data Quality Specialist ▪ focus on data compliance, quality, privacy (GDPR)
7. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 7 May 20, 2026 Job and Career Paths … ▪ HCI/Immersive Analytics Specialist ▪ mixed reality (XR)-based data analysis environments ▪ Entrepreneur ▪ start your own business ▪ PhD Student/Researcher ▪ followed by an academic or industrial career ▪ …
8. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 8 May 20, 2026 Job and Career Paths … ▪ Companies ▪ consulting (Deloitte, PwC, Capgemini, EY, KPMG, Accenture, …) ▪ finance & insurance (KBC, ING, BNP Paribas Fortis, AXA, …) ▪ industry & engineering (Siemens, Collibra, Proximus, Barco, …) ▪ international (Microsoft, Google, SAP, IBM, Oracle, Databricks…) ▪ startups (fintech, healthtech, AI, IoT, XR, …) ▪ …
9. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 9 May 20, 2026 30 ECTS Thesis in Specialisation 30 ECTS Electives 30 ECTS Compulsory Structure of the Two-Year MA Programme Methods for Scientific Research (3 ECTS) Data & Information Management (6 ECTS) Software Architectures (6 ECTS) Security in Computing (6 ECTS) Theory of Computation (3 ECTS) Information Theory (3 ECTS) Philosophy of Science (3 ECTS) 30 ECTS Specialisation Mandatory and elective courses of a given specialisation Electives Research Training (6 ECTS) and Master’s Thesis (24 ECTS) in a given specialisation Mobility Window
10. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 10 May 20, 2026 DAMA Semester 1 (Example) mandatory core (30 ECTS) mandatory DAMA + thesis (24 + 30 ECTS) elective DAMA (min 6 ECTS) elective (rest) + free elective (max 6 ECTS) data models, query languages, data integration, generic architectures of information systems, interoperability, … Data and Information Management (6 ECTS) – Prof. Bas Ketsman Software Architectures (6 ECTS) – Prof. Coen De Roover architecture definition, architectural patterns, micro-service architectures, ... Theory of Computation (3 ECTS) – Prof. Joost Vennekens Methods for Scientific Research (3 ECTS) – Prof. Lynn Houthuys understanding of the scientific method and the process of doing research computability theory, complexity theory, Church-Turing thesis, decidability, halting problem, NP-completeness, … Information Theory (3 ECTS) – Prof. Gerd Vandersteen signal theory and the study of communication channels, entropy, channel capacity, … Philosophy of Science (3 ECTS) – Prof. Bart Van Kerkhove developments in the philosophy of science from the 20th century onwards Scalable Data Management Systems (6 ECTS) – Prof. Bas Ketsman distributed databases, MapReduce, data partitioning, distributed query planning, scalable transaction management, …
11. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 11 May 20, 2026 DAMA Semester 2 (Example) mandatory core (30 ECTS) mandatory DAMA + thesis (24 + 30 ECTS) elective DAMA (min 6 ECTS) elective (rest) + free elective (max 6 ECTS) Security in Computing (6 ECTS) – Prof. Jens Nicolay cryptographic primitives, protocols and libraries, vulnerabilities, authorisation models, low-level and web security, … Scalable Analytics (6 ECTS) – Prof. Pieter Libin scalable machine learning, recommender systems, large graph analysis, scalable deep learning, … Information Visualisation (6 ECTS) – Prof. Beat Signer data representation, data presentation, visualisation techniques, dashboards, perception and colour theory, … Next Generation User Interfaces (6 ECTS) – Prof. Beat Signer multimodal interaction, tangible user interfaces, augmented and virtual reality, gesture-based interaction, … Advanced Topics in Big Data (6 ECTS) – Prof. Signer, Ketsman and Libin seminar about recent developments in big data (data management, retrieval and human-information interaction)
12. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 12 May 20, 2026 DAMA Semester 3 (Example) mandatory core (30 ECTS) mandatory DAMA + thesis (24 + 30 ECTS) elective DAMA (min 6 ECTS) elective (rest) + free elective (max 6 ECTS) syntax, semantics and proof theory of clausal logic, advanced reasoning techniques, … Declarative Programming (6 ECTS) – Prof. Geraint Wiggins Internship Computer Science (6 ETCS) – Dr. Denis Steckelmacher apply knowledge in practice, insights on processes of a professional organisation or company Research Training & Master's Thesis (30 ECTS over semester 3&4) thesis (co-)promoted by Prof.Beat Signer, Prof.Bas Ketsman or Prof.Pieter Libin Cloud Computing and Big Data Processing (6 ECTS) – Prof. Jens Nicolay properties of big data, MapReduce and other Hadoop-related technologies, cluster-computing with Spark, ...
13. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 13 May 20, 2026 DAMA Semester 4 (Example) mandatory core (30 ECTS) mandatory DAMA + thesis (24 + 30 ECTS) elective DAMA (min 6 ECTS) elective (rest) + free elective (max 6 ECTS) linear model, error and noise, neural networks, overfitting, support vector machines, kernel methods, … Statistical Foundations of Machine Learning (6 ECTS) – Prof. Pieter Libin Research Training & Master's Thesis (30 ECTS over semester 3&4) thesis (co-)promoted by Prof.Beat Signer, Prof.Bas Ketsman or Prof.Pieter Libin kernel methods, support vector machines, multimodality, deep learning, fairness, explainability, … Kernel Methods:Principles, Multimodality and Deep Learning (6 ECTS) – Prof. Lynn Houthuys
14. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 14 May 20, 2026 Other Courses mandatory core (30 ECTS) mandatory DAMA + thesis (24 + 30 ECTS) elective DAMA (min 6 ECTS) elective (rest) + free elective (max 6 ECTS) deductive databases, multimedia databases, temporal databases, data warehouses, ... Advanced Databases (5 ECTS) – Prof. Esteban Zimanyi Database Systems Architecture (5 ECTS) – Prof. Mahmoud Sakr query optimisation, physical design, secondary memory indexes, cost-based plan estimation, … Software Quality Analysis (6 ECTS) – Prof. Coen De Roover data flow analysis, control flow analysis, pointer analysis, abstract interpretation of higher-order programs Computer Vision (4 ECTS) – Prof. David Blinder fundamental mathematical and computational computer vision techniques Performance Analysis and Evaluation (6 ECTS) – Prof. Antonio Paolillo simple benchmarks, platforms, operating systems, advanced tools, gotchas in benchmarking, future challenges … Computational Game Theory (6 ECTS) – Prof. Ann Nowé and Prof. Tom Lenaerts multi-agent learning, evolutionary game theory, learning by imitation, evolutionary dynamics
15. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 15 May 20, 2026 Repair Courses (from Bachelor) HTTP, Web 2.0, RIAs, Web Services, REST, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, Web 3.0, XML, RDF, web search, security, … Web Technologies (6 ETCS) – Prof. Beat Signer Databanken (Databases) (6 ECTS) – Prof. Bas Ketsman ER model, relational model & algebra, SQL, transactions, concurrency control, storage & access structures, … Human-Computer Interaction (3 ECTS) – Prof. Beat Signer UI design principles, interaction design, usability, user-centred design, mobile user interfaces, … mandatory core (30 ECTS) mandatory DAMA + thesis (24 + 30 ECTS) elective DAMA (min 6 ECTS) elective (rest) + free elective (max 6 ECTS) Up to a maximum of 12 ECTS can be taken from these Bachelor courses in case of lacking knowledge (conditional to the agreement of the exam commission) DAMA: https://bit.ly/3V5ByhQ Detailed course catalogue: https://caliweb.vub.be/?page=plan&id=00262&anchor=0000001998 &year=2627&language=en
16. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 16 May 20, 2026 Exchange Semester Abroad ▪ Possibility to study a semester abroad ▪ best during 3rd semester of Master studies - follow most of the mandatory courses at the VUB during first year ▪ top European universities via Erasmus+ programme - University of Warwick, UPC, CY Cergy Paris University, TU Munich, TU Dresden, Univer- sity of Konstanz, Bauhaus University Weimar, Potsdam University, Chalmers University of Technology, University of Gothenburg, Babes-Bolyai University, University of Ljubljana, Ca’Foscari University of Venice, Università della Svizzera italiana, Politecnico di Milano ▪ non-EEA destinations - Brazil, China, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Chile, Morocco and South Africa University of Warwick, United Kingdom CY Cergy Paris University, France Technische Universität München, Germany Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
17. Beat Signer - Department of Computer Science - bsigner@vub.be 17 May 20, 2026 References ▪ The 2025 MAD (ML, AI & Data) Landscape ▪ https://www.mattturck.com/mad2025 ▪ https://mad.firstmark.com ▪ Data Management and Analytics Course Catalogue ▪ https://caliweb.vub.be/?page=plan&id=00262&anchor=0000001998&year =2627&language=en