Big Data Analytics (IFM), Fall 2026

This course offers an introduction to the principles and concepts in big data analytics (BDA), which is gaining more popularity in recent years.
The course is offered for the Department of Information and Finanace Management (IFM). It's taught by two instructors: Jenq-Haur Wang, and Li-Chen Cheng.
This page is for the first part. The major topics covered in the first part include: data mining and distributed processing.

Course Information (for the first part)

Instructor: Jenq-Haur Wang
E-mail: mailbox at the domain of our university, and my username is jhwang
Office: R1534, Technology Building (ext. 4238)
Office Hours: Tue. and Fri. 9:10am-12:00pm
Class Hours: Tue. 9:10am-12:00pm. R240, Technology Building
TA: (TBD)
The team has been created in Microsoft Teams for Course Number [366648].
Textbook:
- Jiawei Han, Jian Pei, and Hanghang Tong, Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques, 4th ed., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Oct. 2022. ([DM4]) (selected chapters)
References:
- Holden Karau, Andy Konwinski, Patrick Wendell, Matei Zaharia, Learning Spark: Lightning-Fast Big Data Analysis, O'Reilly Media, January 2015.
- Bill Chambers and Matei Zaharia, Spark: The Definitive Guide, O'Reilly Media, 2018.
- Others: online documents (Hadoop, Spark), tutorials, and selected academic papers.

Latest News

Oct. 1, 2026: [NOTE] There's a change in the schedule of Part I. The midterm exam will be re-scheduled on Nov. 10, 2026. The course on Oct. 13 will be taught by Prof. Cheng.
Sep. 27, 2026: The homepage for the first part of Big Data Analytics (IFM, Fall 2026) has been setup.

(Tentative) Schedule (for the first part - 9/29-11/3)

Week	Date	Content	Reading	Note
1	Sep. 8, 2026	Course Overview (by Prof. Cheng)
2	Sep. 15, 2026	Introduction (by Prof. Cheng)
3	Sep. 22, 2026	Introduction (by Prof. Cheng)
4	Sep. 29, 2026	Course Overview of Part I A Brief Introduction to Big Data Analytics Ch.2, Getting to Know Your Data	DM3, Ch.1 DM3, Ch.2	HW#1
5	Oct. 6, 2026	Ch.3, Data Preprocessing	DM3, Ch.3
6	Oct. 13, 2026	(by Prof. Cheng)
7	Oct. 20, 2026	Ch.6, Frequent Pattern Mining	DM3, Ch.6	Due: HW#1 HW#2
8	Oct. 27, 2026	Ch.8, Classification: Basic Concepts	DM3, Ch.8
9	Nov. 3, 2026	Ch.10, Cluster Analysis: Basic Concepts and Methods	DM3, Ch.10	Due: HW#2
10	Nov. 10, 2026	(Midterm Exam)
11	Nov. 17, 2026	TA: Reference solution to the Midterm exam (The second part)
12	Nov. 24, 2026	(The second part)
13	Dec. 1, 2026	(The second part)
14	Dec. 8, 2026	(The second part)
15	Dec. 15, 2026	(The second part)
16	Dec. 22, 2026	(The second part)
17	Dec. 29, 2026	(The second part)
18	Jan. 5, 2027	(The second part)

Homework Assignments, Labs, and Term Project (for the first part)

During the progress of the course, there will be several homework assignments for written exercises, and also some hand-on labs in class.

Homeworks

There will be about two written assignments for topics such as pattern mining, classification, and clustering.

HW#1 : Ch.2-3 (DM3)
Due: Oct. 20, 2026
HW#2 : Ch.6, 8 (DM3)
Due: Nov. 3, 2026

Please hand in your assignment before deadline according to the following instructions.

Submission Instructions

NOTE: Please follow the instructions by the TA.

If you cannot successfully submit your work, please contact with the TA and the instructor.

Exams

Midterm Exam: Nov. 2-6, 2026
- Date: Nov. 10 (Tue.)
- Time: 9:10am-12:00pm
- Location: R240, Technology Building
- Range: Ch. 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10 (DM3) (TBD)
Final Exam: Dec. 18-24, 2026
- (N/A)

Scores

Please check the homework submission site for more details.

Created: Sep. 27, 2026.
Last Updated: Oct. 1, 2026.