Learning goals.
The different techniques existing for Big Data management will be illustrated, with a particular emphasis on NoSQL databases.
The course will also deal with the problem of collecting Big Data from various sources such as from the web or from the online social networks.
This will require also the introduction of the different formats that are commonly used to encode unstructured, semi-structured and structured data and of the different techniques that can be used to automate their processing.
Successively, pre-processing techniques, including denoising and imputation of missing data, will be considered.
Then, the course will treat dimensionality reduction techniques, based on feature extraction and feature selection.
Finally, some statistical learning models, supervised and unsupervised, for the analysis of Big Data, will be presented.
Real-world problems will be addressed during the course using suitable software.

Knowledge and understanding.
The student will learn as to apply some statistical learning techniques for dimensionality reduction, based on feature extraction and feature selection.
Moreover, he will know and understand some powerful statistical learning models, supervised and unsupervised, to analyse Big Data.

Applying knowledge and understanding.
The student will be able to manage Big Data collected from various sources.
He will learn as to apply dimensionality reduction techniques, based on feature extraction and feature selection.
Moreover, he will be able to choose and apply some powerful statistical learning models to analyse Big Data.

Making judgements.
Students will develop critical skills through the application of a wide range of machine learning and statistical models.
They also will develop the critical sense through the comparison between alternative solutions to the same problem obtained using different learning logics.
They will learn to critically interpret the results obtained by applying the procedures to real data sets.

Communication skills.
Students, through the study and execution of practical exercises, acquire the technical-scientific language of the discipline, which must be used appropriately in both the intermediate and final written tests and in the oral tests.
Communication skills are also developed through group activities.

Learning skills.
Students who pass the exam will have learned an analytical approach that allows them to tackle Big Data analysis with statistical models and machine learning methods.