Big Data, Prediction and Global Affairs: How to Use 21st Century Computing

Strategic analysis of geopolitical events requires sifting through exponentially increasing arrays of data¿a feat no single human brain can achieve. But cognitive computing represents an advance in analytics that simulates some aspects of the way the human brain functions to assist in big data tasks at the scale our 21st century digital society requires. As embodied by Watson, IBM¿s celebrated supercomputer, cognitive computing generates both predictive and prescriptive output, facilitating continual processing and analysis of large volumes of unstructured data and content (like social media streams, news reports, polls and feedback forums, etc.). This course will introduce students to the building blocks of cognitive computing: developing a data corpus; processing such data; machine learning; and natural language processing. This course¿s unique structure allows students to directly use Watson and its platform of APIs (application programming interfaces) to build their own applications around global issues.