Program Overview

The X-HEC Data Science for Business Master of Science and Technology is a two-year program designed for high-level, internationally oriented students. Taught jointly by École Polytechnique and HEC Paris, this program offers the unique opportunity to study at two world-leading institutions for engineering and business.

The X-HEC Data Science for Business Master’s Program provides its students with a very sought-after double expertise across all sectors and industries. It aims to train dual-profile managers and data scientists to become tomorrow's entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and data managers, who will go on to create impactful startups, disrupt business models and manage innovation.

    Picto-PROGRAM-Diplome
    Master's Degree
    Picto-PROGRAM-Multidisciplinary
    Industry-Oriented
    Picto-PROGRAM-Start
    September 2024
    Picto-PROGRAM-duree
    2 Years
    Picto-PROGRAM-langues
    Taught in English
    Picto-PROGRAM-Location
    In France
    Picto-PROGRAM-Credits
    140 ECTS
    Picto-PROGRAM-carte bleue
    €26,050 Per Year

    Program Structure

    The Data Science for Business Master's Program combines a scientific and a business approach to contemporary Data Science issues and challenges. The first year takes place at École Polytechnique, with a strong focus on scientific and mathematic topics. The second year is spent at HEC Paris, and uses learning-by-doing methods to help students enhance their management knowledge and apply it to solve complex business challenges. During these two years, students benefit from world-class faculty and study alongside leading data scientists in specialized research units within a competitive environment.

    The program trains students in the field of data science and equips them with excellent technological, scientific, strategic and business skills. Students will have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge in the field and gain a wide range of valuable skills, including:

    • In-depth understanding of machine learning techniques
    • State-of-the-art data sciences programming skills
    • Make a big data project succeed in the corporate world
    • Theoritical understanding of main statistical algorithms
    • Real company data challenges
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    student smile

    HIGH-LEVEL TEACHING
    Classes are taught by researchers, who make sure they use research results to illustrate their teaching. They are often assisted by teaching assistants.
    In addition, students regularly attend lectures given by representatives from academia or leading companies, who talk to them about important data-related issues (legislation, ethics, etc.).

    Year 1

    The Program gives students the opportunity to explore a wide range of methods from the fields of Statistics and Applied Mathematics. during the first year, they follow courses in statistics, machine learning and programming language, among others.

    The teaching focuses largely on the data produced by "real-life" cases. The course also tackles the issue of data storage, as today’s companies need to constantly rethink the structure of their information systems without compromising performances and security. Depending on their profile, students may have access to mathematics foundation courses in Mathematics, Statistics and Probabilities.

    Internship: The first year ends with a 4-month internship with a company in a data-related sector. Recent examples include Microsoft, Facebook, Orange, Capgemini Consulting, etc.
     

    DATA CAMPS

    One day every week is dedicated to Data Camps, during which students work on data science cases in partnership with companies. During these sessions, they get to learn how to perform a complete data analysis: from data manipulation, exploration, and visualization to analysis with powerful machine learning methods. Students then have to communicate and deploy their solution.

    Year 2

    HEC Paris offers a sharp focus on Data for Business for the second year of the curriculum through a range of business challenges and courses on how to create business value using data.

    The first semester includes core courses (e.g. data analytics for business strategy, regulation and compliance in data science, digital transformation…) and business challenges with companies, during which students work on complex real-life business issues using sophisticated and up-to-date data sets.

    During the second semester, students will choose between three specialisation tracks:

    • Data Manager: Joining a data science department of a company
    • Data Entrepreneur: Joining the HEC Startup Launchpad and creating a startup
    • Data Consultant: Joining a consulting firm to help clients develop business by leveraging data
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    MSCT student in class

    Learning expeditions are organized to discover a data and startups ecosystem (e.g. London, New York, etc.)

    Research paper: The second year is completed with a compulsory research paper. Students will work on a specific subject during 4 months with the help of a tutor.

    Studying at Ecole Polytechnique and HEC gives more confidence to the majority of my interlocutors and brings a certain legitimacy. Besides that, I was able to have access to a very important double professional network. In terms of skills, I learned a lot about theory in data science and statistics classes, but also about organizing, popularizing and making connections between business expertise and the data collected.

    Mathieu Joubrel

    Career Prospects

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    MSc&T student ecole polytechnique

    The MSc&T Data Science for Business aims to equip students with a double skill set in both science and business. The course helps students build a unique, dual-skilled profile tailored to the specific needs of 21st century companies. This Program responds to the growing demand of companies for a new generation of data scientists and managers, who can deal with data pools on technological, scientific and business.

    During these two years, you will benefit from École Polytechnique and HEC’s network of industrial, research and institutional partners. Upon graduation, you will have access to employment opportunities at top firms in a wide range of sectors:

    • Financial, banking and insurance sector (BPCE, Natixis, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Barclays, HSBC, AXA)
    • Telecommunications and digital (Orange, IBM, Google, Facebook, Criteo, start-ups)
    • Manufacturing IT industry
    • E-commerce and retail companies (Amazon, FNAC, Darty, Cdiscount…)
    • Consultancy agencies (McKinsey, Accenture, Cap Gemini…) and Business Intelligence (Keyris, Sopra Group, Capgemini Consulting, SAP-Business Object, SAS)
    • Data-driven marketing industry
    • Media and leisure industry