Prepare for a career in the exciting and innovative field of artificial intelligence (AI). Graduates of this two-year post-graduate program will be equipped with the knowledge and specialized skills in AI and data science needed to design and build data-driven systems for decision-making in the private and public sectors.
As a graduate of Loyalist's full-time Artificial Intelligence and Data Science post-graduate program, you will be equipped with the knowledge to write certification exams with Microsoft (Power BI), Tableau and IBM Watson Analytics.
This program will be delivered remotely for Winter 2021.
Find your career
AI and data science professionals find careers working in a range of sectors, including consulting firms, financial services, government and authority, international organizations/non-profits, technology, and research.
Develop essential skills in the following:
- Statistical modeling and inference
- Machine learning
- Data visualization
- Data warehousing
- Business intelligence
- Computer vision
- Python
- Mathematics for data science
Experiential learning, including a co-op work term
Through training in predictive, descriptive and prescriptive analytics, gain the knowledge needed to design and build decision-making systems based on AI and data science. Get hands-on skills in the following:
- Learn how to collect, manipulate and mine data sets to meet organizational need.
- Acquire skills for designing and applying process-specific data models, as well as for developing software applications to manipulate data sets, correlate information and produce reports.
- Gain experience identifying and assessing data analytics, business strategies and workflows to respond to new opportunities or provide project solutions.
- Develop skills in data analytics, business intelligence tools and research to support evidence-based decision-making.
- Practise developing AI models and agents that use enterprise data to identify patterns, provide insights, recommend actions or perform tasks autonomously, on behalf of stakeholders.
- A co-op work term in semester four provides an opportunity to gain first-hand workplace experience.
Co-ops in work terms are valuable work-integrated learning experiences in which students demonstrate outcomes from previous semesters in Canadian industry settings. In addition to building skills and identifying career contacts, co-ops in work terms add industry-relevant experience to students’ résumés. The co-op job market is competitive, and students will be expected to participate actively in their job searches. Students will be supported with information and skills to attain co-ops.
- First Year - Semester One
- AISC1005 AI Principles and Best Practices in Canada
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Students will learn about the principles of AI and data science and how to apply best practices to their work within a Canadian context.
- AISC1004 Deterministic Models and Optimization
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The main objective in this course is to give students a thorough grounding in optimization models, theory and algorithms. The course level is introductory and the scope is broad, so only the most important and representative models and algorithms will be covered. The presented material will be closely linked to modern statistical methods such as network analysis, Quintilian regression and high dimensional statistics.
- AISC1003 Machine Learning 1
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This course is an introduction to some of the basic techniques of machine learning required for data science. It provides a solid training in computational algorithms for supervised problems (classification and regression), such as decision trees and forests, support vector machines or nearest neighbours. The course includes a hands-on component that focuses on the use of scientific scripting languages, and special attention is devoted to Python language.
- AISC1002 Maths for Data Science
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This course introduces fundamental mathematical concepts relevant to data and computer science and provides a basis for further study in data science, statistics and cyber security. Topics covered include probability (sets, counting, probability axioms, Bayes' theorem); optimization and calculus (differentiation, integration, functions of several variables, series approximations, gradient descent); linear algebra (vectors and matrices, matrix algebra, vector spaces); and discrete mathematics (induction, difference equations). This course makes connections between each of these fundamental mathematical concepts and modern data science applications, and introduces Python programming for data wrangling, algorithms and visualization.
- AISC1000 Python
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This course covers the fundamentals of Python and explains why it's the best option for data science projects. Python has long been known as a simple programming language to comprehend, from a syntax point of view. This course covers an introduction, data structures, data manipulation, data exploration, loops and conditions, data visualizations, Plotly and Python dash.
- AISC1001 Statistical Modelling and Inference
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This course presents concepts of probability and statistics. Probability and statistics form the basis of data science. The probability theory is important for predicting. Estimates and predictions form an important part of data science. This course explains how we can make estimates for further analysis using statistics. This course covers the fundamentals of statistics such as central tendency theorem and types of distribution.
- AISC1006 Step Presentation (Step 1)
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The Student's Term-End Presentation (STEP) helps the learner to logically arrange theoretical concepts into areas of practical applications. In STEP 1, all concepts learned in semester one are practised on a live data set in the form of a group assignment, wherein group participants extract insights from available data using conceptual learning attained thus far.
- First Year - Semester Two
- AISC2003 Advanced Analytics
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This course presents concepts of advanced analytics techniques such as ensemble learning, density based clustering, fuzzy clustering, dimension reduction, bagging, gradient boosting, sequence mining and streaming analytics. This covers ensemble methods using multiple learning algorithms to obtain better predictive performance than could be obtained from any of the constituent learning algorithms alone.
- AISC2005 Business Communications in Canada
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The course prepares students to use appropriate business communication techniques, such as report writing and presentation skills, and will cover interpersonal skills and how to build client relationships within a Canadian business environment.
- AISC2004 Data Storytelling Techniques
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This course will cover the fundamentals of effective data-driven storytelling. Students will learn how to detect and articulate the stories behind data sets and communicate data findings in visual, oral, and written contexts for various audiences and stakeholders. Students will become familiar with associated tools.
- AISC2001 Data Visualization
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This course presents concepts of data visualization and explains visualization tools. This course will cover topics such as various data sources, metadata, data preparation, joints and data blending. Basics functions such as sorting and filtering will be covered in this course, and techniques such as drill down and hierarchies, reference lines and tend lines will be explained.
- AISC2002 Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
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In this course, students will get an overview of modern solutions for storing and analyzing big data, as well as hands-on practice working with databases, building systems to collect data from the internet, and creating live web dashboards. Students are encouraged to think creatively and use knowledge from other courses during the first term to come up with an informative display of data that they can create with dashboard tolls taught in class.
- AISC2000 Machine Learning 2
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The purpose of this course is to give students a solid basis of statistical learning. Both theoretical foundations and algorithmic issues of supervised learning will be discussed in depth.
- AISC2006 Step Presentation (Step 2)
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The Student's Term-End Presentation (STEP) helps the learner to logically arrange theoretical concepts into areas of practical applications. In STEP 2, all concepts learned in semester two are practised on a live data set in the form of a group assignment, wherein group participants extract insights from available data using conceptual learning attained thus far.
- Second Year - Semester Three
- AISC2008 Computer Vision
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This course presents concepts and fundamentals of computer vision. Topics such as image processing will be covered. Computer vision techniques such as object detection, object tracking and action recognition will be covered, as well as image segmentation and synthesis.
- AISC2011 Data Science Project Management and Requirement Gathering
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This course will enable learners to successfully manage a data science project. This course takes students through data mining activities in the context of project management. The project explains inputs and outputs of all activities helping effective project management of a data science project. As per the project management best practices, it guides students to engage the right stakeholders to help establish data mining success criteria to achieve the business goals.
- AISC2007 Deep Learning
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This course presents concepts of deep learning such a basics of neural networks, deep neural networks and recurrent neural networks (RNN). Topics covered include the fundamentals of artificial neural networks and how to implement them in Python programming language.
- AISC2013 Deployment of AI Solutions
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This course will focus on the unit and system testing, model lifecycle management and real-life application of AI. A detailed exploration of the retaining pipeline, how to deploy AI on cloud and the best AI operational practices will be completed.
- AISC2009 Natural Language Processing
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This course presents concepts of natural language processing (NLP). The concepts of text mining and its applications, the basics of NLP, such as POS, entity recognition, regular expression and how to implement them, sentiment analysis, topical modelling and clustering in text courses will be covered.
- AISC2010 Programming and Deployment of IoT Devices
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This course will explore the market around the Internet of Things (IoT), the technology used to build these kinds of devices, how they communicate, how they store data, and the types of distribution systems needed to support them.
- AISC2012 Tools for AI
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This course will explore the basics of SQL, MySQL, NoSQL and MongoDB. This will cover the fundamentals of Docker and Kubernetes, Data Lake and centralization strategy. Creation and deployment of an API, what is ELK Stake and an introduction to Spark and distributed computing will also be covered.
- Second Year - Semester Four (Electives)
- AISC3000 Capstone- Business Simulation Project
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The capstone project will enable students to work on-real world problems using public data. Students will apply exploratory data analysis skills to build an accurate prediction model.
- COOP3000 Industry Co-op
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Students will apply previous learning in a hands-on environment with real data from industry to gain experience of real-world problems and case studies.
- AISC3001 Kaggle Competition
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This course allows students to find and publish data sets, explore and build models in a web-based data-science environment, work with other data scientists and machine learning engineers, and enter competitions to solve data science challenges.
- AISC3002 Professional Certification
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Students will work toward certification in the most in-demand proprietary certifications to enhance their employability attributes upon graduation.
- Notes
- Select 1 courses from above
*Courses subject to change.
Certification Exam Preparation
As a graduate of Loyalist's full-time Artificial Intelligence and Data Science post-graduate program, you will be equipped with the knowledge to to write certification exams with Microsoft (Power BI), Tableau and IBM Watson Analytics.
How much will it cost?
Approximate costs per year (2020 – 21)
The following fees do not include living costs, textbooks or additional program-specific expenses/supplies.
- International Tuition: $14,332.50
- Ancillary Fees: $902.38
- Health Insurance (mandatory): $600
- Total: $15,834.88 CAD
*Fees subject to change. The above tuition and fees are based on two semesters of study per academic year.
Admission Requirements
Required academic preparation
A diploma or degree in computer studies, technology, engineering, analytics, mathematics or statistics from a recognized college or university or equivalent.
All teaching within Loyalist is conducted in English. In order to be successful in a program, skills such as communication, listening comprehension, and reading and writing must be at a level sufficient to meet the demands of post-secondary studies. All applicants to Loyalist whose first language is not English, or whose previous education was in another language, will be expected to provide an English proficiency assessment for admissions approval. Details about language and general admission requirements are available here.
How to Apply
International students may now apply to Loyalist College in Toronto by contacting recruitment@edusolutions.ca.