IIT Madras Offers Free Online Course on Data Science for Engineers through NPTEL

IIT Madras is accepting online enrollments for a free online course called Data Science for Engineers through the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) project of SWAYAM, of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development. While taking the 8 weeks long online course is free, students will be able to receive an online certificate for the same by paying a nominal fee of Rs 1000.

The course will be conducted by IIT Madras professors Ragunathan Rengasamy and Shankar Narasimhan. Before joining IIT Madras as a professor, Prof Rengaswamy was a professor of chemical engineering and co-director of the process control and optimization consortium at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA, and Prof Narasimhan has co-authored several important papers and a book titled Data Reconciliation and Gross Error Detection: An Intelligent Use of Process Data which has received critical appreciation in India and abroad.

Who is Eligible for the Free Online Course on Data Science for Engineers by the IIT Madras?

Although the title of the course is data science for engineers, it can be taken by any learner who is interested to gain insights on data science. The website says that 10 hours of pre-course material will be provided, which learners need to practice to be ready to take the course. The learning outcomes that will be achieved through the online course on data science for engineers is as follows: Describe a flow process for data science problems, classify data science problems into standard typology, develop R codes for data science solutions, correlate results to the solution approach followed, and so on.

Over a duration of 8 weeks, learners will be introduced to Linear algebra for data science, course philosophy and introduction to R, simple linear regression and verifying assumptions used in linear regression, classification using logistic regression, classification using kNN and k-means clustering, Multivariate linear regression, model assessment, assessing the importance of different variables, subset selection, and so on.

How to Obtain Certificate for Course on Data Science for Engineers by the IIT Madras?

While taking the course is free, students can obtain a certificate by registering and giving an exam that will be conducted, for which a fee of Rs 1000 needs to be paid. To obtain the certificate, candidates will have to get 25 percent of best 6 assignments out of the total 8 assignments, and 75 percent of the proctored certification exam score out of 100. The e-certificate will have the logos of IIT Madras and NPTEL. No physical certificates will be dispatched.

Important Dates to Remember

The online course will begin on 20 July 2020, so students would need to register for the course before that date or maximum by 27 July. The course ends on 11 September 2020, and examinations will be conducted on 27 September 2020 from 9 am to 12 noon, which is the morning session, and afternoon session 2 pm to 5 pm. Those who wish to take the course are advised to go through the NPTEL