Description
The concept of Big Data is one of the cornerstones of the 4th industrial revolution. Big Data is part of a family of concepts now known as disruptive technology. The presence of Big Data and the technology that leverages from it has already seeped into our everyday lives, in many ways unnoticed, especially to the uninformed eye, yet caused unmistakable changes we can only marvel at.
Subject Matter Expert
Christo Strydom started his career as a scientist at Pelindaba’s Van de Graaff research facility and studied Cold Fusion, which was poised to solve all our energy shortcomings. He studied Physics and Mathematics at the University of Johannesburg, has a Master’s degree in Nuclear Physics from the University of Pretoria, as well as an MBA from Wits Business School.
He joined a stockbroker in 1995 and became a trader in the financial markets. At various times during the next 17 years, he was involved in interest rates, equities, commodities and currencies, and futures and options. Mathematics and statistics were always what gave Christo a niche in these markets.
Christo became what is known in the financial markets as a “multidisciplinary trader”, and used market data to hunt for profitable, high-speed (frequency) trading algorithms. He found that there was so much value in data, and more data simply brought more insight. This volume and speed of data stretched the infrastructure boundaries available at the time.
The techniques Christo learned in multidisciplinary trading gave him entry to a young and lucrative fintech company in Pretoria that was fully committed to Big Data and data science and using it in a production environment.
After this venture, Christo joined a bank in Sandton with the mission to bring Big Data and machine learning (as well as AI) to their loyalty and rewards programme.
Academic Support
Your dedicated Online Academic Tutor (OAT) will provide you with necessary guidance, offer advice and answer questions on course content, to help you achieve academic success.
Student Support Coordinator
The Student Success Coordinator (SSC) team will assist you with any query that you may have about the environment, systems, and general utilisation throughout your learning journey.
Course and Technical Requirements
BASIC REQUIREMENTS
To successfully access and complete this course, you will be required to have a registered email account, access to a computer/laptop/tablet and a stable internet connection. You will be required to be familiar with using a computer as you may need to be able to read and download documents in Adobe PDF Reader, view Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, and read and create documents in Microsoft Word.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Our online short learning programmes may require additional software applications. These additional software applications requirements will be communicated to you in this information pack and/or on the website course page. Damelin Online does not provide any additional software applications required for online short learning programmes.
Please note: Google, YouTube and Vimeo may be used in our online course delivery. If any of these services are blocked in your jurisdiction, you may have difficulty accessing our course content.
How We Engage with Students
Our online short learning programmes are broken into self-paced manageable modules designed to be interactive and engaging:
- The programme is available to be viewed on smart devices and includes mobile, tablets and personal computers.
- Relevant case studies, articles and recommended reading are part of supplementary resources available.
- Apply and evaluate what you have learned in each module with the self-grading quizzes and assignment submissions
- View a range of Introductory course videos by your Subject Matter Expert.
- Scheduled live webinars are included with the Online Academic Tutor.
- Network, collaborate and interact with your fellow participants and Online Academic Tutor via the discussion boards.
Certification
Upon successful completion of this online short learning programme, you will receive the recognition of your knowledge and skills with a Damelin Certificate of Competence. Your certificate of competence will be issued in your registered name and will be couriered at no additional cost. You will be required to complete a series of assessments that will be facilitated through our virtual learning environment. Your course handbook will be made available to you once you have commenced with your short learning programme.
