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Master of Data Science

Enrollment for Summer 2025 is now open!

University of Pittsburgh logo

Master of Data Science

University of Pittsburgh

Enroll for Summer 2025

Get started on your enrollment form or request more info below to learn more about Pitt's MDS program.

Enroll now

Accredited Master’s Degree

Offered by the University of Pittsburgh, a highly-ranked, Carnegie R1 public research institution

20 months (part-time)

Finish this 30-credit program in 20 months (9-10 hours per week), working at your own pace.

Learn from anywhere

Lecture videos, hands-on projects and live sessions with instructors and peers.

$15,000 Tuition cost

Pay-as-you-go for the courses you enroll in, one term at a time, with flexible payment options available.

Sample the program

Click here to request access to the free preview of Pitt's Data Centric Computing PBA course.

Academics

Are you ready to become a data scientist?

Designed for graduates from any background, our program focuses on building responsible theoretical and practical skills to help you launch or advance your career as a data scientist in our increasingly data-driven economy.

Want to preview a course? Request more info by clicking the “request info” button at the top of the page to receive early access to the “Data Centric Computing” PBA course. Your progress on videos and readings in this preview course will seamlessly transfer to your for-credit experience, ensuring that the efforts you put in now will count towards your future academic success.

Earning your Master of Data Science will enable you to:

  • Cultivate skills in advanced analytics and ethical leadership, empowering you to strategically guide data-driven initiatives and foster collaborative success within interdisciplinary teams.

  • Acquire the computational, mathematical and statistical knowledge needed for responsible data management and data curation, ethically cleaning, interpreting and using big data across a variety of contexts.

  • Program in Python and R, using Jupyter notebooks and RStudio. 

  • Design and query relational databases using various tools (e.g. MySQL via MySQL Workbench and Neo4j).

  • Gain practical experience through data exploration and predictive modeling.

  • Develop hands-on experience with large, real-world data sources from campus, community and corporate partners.

Flexibility
You’ll study online at your own pace and on your own schedule, adapting your learning to fit around your professional and personal commitments.
Program length
Our 30-credit MDS program (10 courses, three credits each, including a capstone) takes 20-36 months to complete. Three enrollment terms throughout the year means you’re never more than four months from a start date.
Launch your data-driven career
Join our Master of Data Science program and transform your current professional experience into a launchpad for a data-centric career.
Learn on mobile
Take your studies on the go with mobile-friendly learning on iOS and Android. (Some assignments may still require a desktop or laptop.)

Admissions information

Enrollment for Summer 2025 is now open! Enrollment deadline is May 7, 2025.

Gain admission into the degree through your performance in one introductory course. No transcripts, essays, letters of recommendation, or exams are required! Details.

Get a Head Start on Your MDS! Click the ‘request info’ button above & receive early access to the “Data Centric Computing” PBA preview course. The best part? All your progress will transfer when classes start in January!

Admissions information

Enrollment for Summer 2025 is now open! Enrollment deadline is May 7, 2025.

Gain admission into the degree through your performance in one introductory course. No transcripts, essays, letters of recommendation, or exams are required! Details.

Get a Head Start on Your MDS! Click the ‘request info’ button above & receive early access to the “Data Centric Computing” PBA preview course. The best part? All your progress will transfer when classes start in January!

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Path 1 - MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship 

This 24-month program (460 hours total) consists of three stages, combining research and practical project work with a comprehensive immersion in the fundamentals of innovative business management and strategy.

  1. Fundamentals Courses (6 months): Discover the underpinning principles and approaches that drive the world’s most successful innovative companies and organizations. Alongside the seven core courses, you’ll choose to complete either Group 1 or Group 2 of the elective courses.

  2. Team Project Phase. Guide a team project from initial conception to commercialization. Your project work will be underpinned by 10 courses designed to guide your progress. Putting theory into practice, you’ll explore and collaborate with other professionals and developing decision makers to synthesize a viable start-up idea. You’ll then embark on a 12 month project-based curriculum, using all of your newfound theoretical and practical expertise to develop and be ready to launch a new product, brand or organization.

  3. Thesis. You’ll pursue your individually-researched project, and submit your business plan. Your thesis is the sum of all of your learned knowledge from the program and gives you a chance to prove your capabilities in your chosen field.

Path 2 - Executive MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship 

This 18-month program (433,5 hours total) is designed for established business leaders and management professionals who are ready to turn their experience into a launchpad for an exciting new trajectory. You’ll study 20 separate courses in total, grouped around three distinct program stages.

  1. 10 Fundamental Courses (6 months). These foundational skill-building courses enable participants to acquire the skills needed to scale up a company, boost creativity, manage new product development processes, capitalize on social media for marketing purposes and clearly define business strategy in individual contexts.

  2. Team Project-based Courses (12 months). 10 courses designed to inform and underpin your progress through the team project, as you work together to create a new product, service or brand.

  3. Team Project. While studying the courses above, you’ll simultaneously guide a team project from initial conception to commercialization. Participants will be mentored, both 1:1 and as a team, by a highly experienced entrepreneur/business leader. Pitch your start-up ideas - for real. Use the program to plan your ideal enterprise - then pitch it to ‘Station F’, the world’s largest start-up accelerator.

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Curriculum

The following 7 core courses are mandatory during the Fundamental phase:

Fundamentals Phase Courses
Entrepreneurship StrategyLearn the step-by-step process of an entrepreneurial project, and how to use disruptive creativity to your advantage.
Building Your Leadership SkillsExplore and define your own leadership style, in accordance with your motivations and inspirations.
Business StrategyLearn to analyze your project’s external environment, internal capabilities and resources to discover your competitive advantage.
New Product DevelopmentA comprehensive overview of the product development process, drawn from multiple industries and disciplines.
Design ThinkingLearn systematic approaches to uncovering creative insights and solutions for specific design situations.
Marketing Through Social MediaCombine hands-on technical learning about managing professional social accounts with a deeper understanding of how social media has changed marketing.
Scaling Up OperationsUsing quantitative analysis methodology, including probability theory and optimization, you’ll advance your understanding of start-up evolution and how to scale business operations.

Alongside the seven core courses, you’ll choose to complete either Group 1 or Group 2 of the elective courses:

Group 1 Electives:
Social EntrepreneurshipLearn about sustainable business models through an action-based learning project, exploring the challenges of creating societal value through entrepreneurship.
Organizational DesignStudy the core challenges common to the trajectory of any venture, and learn how to effectively design organizations.
Boosting CreativityExplore creativity as a cognitive function, and discover how to innovate approaches to business challenges.
Group 2 Electives:
Leading OrganizationsBuilding on your existing leadership skill set, you’ll undergo a series of leadership challenges with mentorship and feedback from a diverse range of business leaders.
Giving Sense to Your Leadership ExperienceUsing the Savoir-Relier leadership method, you’ll build your self-awareness and leadership confidence, and develop management skills based on the three ‘G’s - genuine, generous, and generative.
Your Leadership ChallengeOn this mini-project, you’ll choose a personal leadership challenge, and then use the five steps of the relational circuit model to solve it.

The following 10 core courses are mandatory during the Team Project phase:

Project Phase Courses
Team WorkingLearn new ways to sustainably manage and lead people toward a common vision.
Developing a Customer-centric StrategyLearn how to develop and communicate offers that customers will value, using the latest psychological frameworks, marketing ideas and tools.
Strategic Management of InnovationLearn how innovation shapes business strategy and affects competition. Develop a set of tools to help judge the potential impact and value of innovative ideas.
Fundamentals of NegotiationMaster the art of negotiation in a variety of settings, learning how to handle investors, partners, customers and employees.
Managing the Performance of a Growing EnterpriseLearn how to manage and measure the performance of an enterprise, and how to set up planning and accountability systems that’ll help your project stay agile.
Business Model InnovationYou’ll access Odyssey 3.14, an original approach developed to help you invent or reinvent a business model.
Intellectual Property LawIn this course, you’ll get a balanced overview of the acquisition of IP rights, freedom to operate, licensing tools, and the valuation of IP assets.
Entrepreneurial FinanceLearn about the range of available financing mechanisms for innovative and growth companies, and the critical role of venture capital.
How to Create A Business PlanIn this course, you’ll learn how to build and write a business plan, and how to design and present a successful five-minute pitch that will convince any stakeholder.
Private Equity and Venture CapitalExplore fundamental notions around equity and venture capital funds, to help you understand, build and leverage your finance relationships.

Program Objectives:

  • Drive innovation and business development
  • Create products or services in a start-up context or within an existing organization
  • Obtain a degree from one of the leading business schools in the world without having to leave your home or workplace

Learning and Evaluation Methods:

The fully online nature of the program allows participants to acquire new knowledge and skills without having to compromise their personal and professional commitments, while benefitting from direct interactions with HEC Paris Faculty, and personalized support from an HEC Paris Program Manager.

The project-based learning activities combine asynchronous courses, interactive webinars facilitated by HEC Paris professors, and team coaching by business leaders, or program alumni.

The following 10 core courses are mandatory during the Fundamental phase:

Fundamentals Phase Courses
Entrepreneurship StrategyLearn the step-by-step process of an entrepreneurial project, and how to use disruptive creativity to your advantage.
Building Your Leadership SkillsExplore and define your own leadership style, in accordance with your motivations and inspirations.
Boosting CreativityExplore creativity as a cognitive function, and discover how to innovate approaches to business challenges.
New Product DevelopmentA comprehensive overview of the product development process, drawn from multiple industries and disciplines.
Design ThinkingLearn systematic approaches to uncovering creative insights and solutions for specific design situations.
Business StrategyLearn to analyze your project’s external environment, internal capabilities and resources to discover your competitive advantage.
Social Entrepreneurship and Change-MakingLearn about sustainable business models through an action-based learning project, exploring the challenges of creating societal value through entrepreneurship.
Organizational Design and ManagementStudy the core challenges common to the trajectory of any venture, and learn how to effectively design organizations.
Marketing Through Social MediaCombine hands-on technical learning about managing professional social accounts with a deeper understanding of how social media has changed marketing.
Scaling Up OperationsUsing quantitative analysis methodology, including probability theory and optimization, you’ll advance your understanding of start-up evolution and how to scale business operations.

The following 10 core courses are mandatory during the Team Project phase:

Project Phase Courses
Team WorkingLearn new ways to sustainably manage and lead people toward a common vision.
Developing a Customer-centric StrategyLearn how to develop and communicate offers that customers will value, using the latest psychological frameworks, marketing ideas and tools.
Strategic Management of InnovationLearn how innovation shapes business strategy and affects competition. Develop a set of tools to help judge the potential impact and value of innovative ideas.
Fundamentals of NegotiationMaster the art of negotiation in a variety of settings, learning how to handle investors, partners, customers and employees.
Managing the Performance of a Growing EnterpriseLearn how to manage and measure the performance of an enterprise, and how to set up planning and accountability systems that’ll help your project stay agile.
Business Model InnovationYou’ll access Odyssey 3.14, an original approach developed to help you invent or reinvent a business model.
Intellectual Property LawIn this course, you’ll get a balanced overview of the acquisition of IP rights, freedom to operate, licensing tools, and the valuation of IP assets.
Entrepreneurial FinanceLearn about the range of available financing mechanisms for innovative and growth companies, and the critical role of venture capital.
How to Create A Business PlanIn this course, you’ll learn how to build and write a business plan, and how to design and present a successful five-minute pitch that will convince any stakeholder.
Private Equity and Venture CapitalExplore fundamental notions around equity and venture capital funds, to help you understand, build and leverage your finance relationships.

Program Objectives:

  • Use social media to help build value-creating digital marketing strategies
  • Develop a value proposition by identifying customer problems and market opportunities
  • Communicate effectively and negotiate with external and internal stakeholders as part of an innovative or entrepreneurial project
  • Learn to use a methodological framework to design, write and present a business plan
  • Elaborate a development strategy for an innovative or entrepreneurial project
  • Design and implement management systems adapted to the development of an innovative or entrepreneurial project
  • Manage the performance of an innovative project or a growing company
  • Integrate any legal aspects which are an essential part of an innovative or entrepreneurial project
  • Develop a managerial culture and organizational structures, adapted to the contexts and challenges of an innovative or entrepreneurial project
  • Develop your leadership potential to generate meaning and confidence in the service of an innovative project

Learning and Evaluation Methods:

The fully online nature of the program allows participants to acquire new knowledge and skills without having to compromise their personal and professional commitments, while benefitting from direct interactions with HEC Paris faculty, and personalized support from an HEC Paris program manager.

The project-based learning activities combine asynchronous courses, interactive webinars facilitated by HEC Paris professors, and team coaching by experience entrepreneurs.

The learning methods include business cases, action-based learning, project management, models and analysis tools, theoretical and practical presentation, group work, interactive exchanges, tutoring, virtual classes, and distance learning.

The evaluation methods used include application in real-life professional situations, business cases, developing objectives and strategies (Marketing, Business Development, Digital, Financial…), applying concepts in real-life contexts, identifying stakeholders and implementing an adapted strategy (for each stakeholder if necessary) and self-assessment.