In this experience, Nathan Topping takes you on a journey into the fast-moving world of data science and machine learning. You’ll discover how maths, coding, and AI come together to solve real-world problems - whether it’s predicting disease or understanding human behaviour. Nathan introduces you to key concepts like supervised learning, regression, and classification, with practical examples such as the K Nearest Neighbours (KNN) algorithm. You’ll explore how machine learning is shaping industries from healthcare to recruitment, and why fairness, ethics, and explainability matter when building AI systems. Finally, you’ll put your skills to the test with a hands-on activity that challenges you to apply machine learning to predict house prices—giving you a taste of what it’s like to think like a real data scientist.
The University of Salford pioneers exceptional industry partnerships, prepares students for life, and has a global community of over 170,000 alumni. Salford is an ambitious, thriving university and there are countless reasons why students choose to study there. Whether it’s the award-winning academics, warm and welcoming campus, state-of-the-art facilities, or fantastic location in the city of Salford with Manchester’s vibrant city centre on the doorstep. Whatever the reason for joining, students become part of a community with access to the support and opportunities they need to achieve their ambitions.
Nathan Topping is a Lecturer in Data Science and delivers teaching across a number of modules on the MSc Data Science and MSc Internet of Things with Data Science programmes. He covers topics including databases, big data tools, data visualisation, statistics, and machine learning. He has an industry background working as a Data Scientist and has research interests spanning AI fairness, medical data mining and generative AI.
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