Go to the newsletter page and sign up to receive course dates, call for applications and other related programme news.
Data Science
Learn to analyse large data sets and train machine learning methods
This course is a part of
Increasing amounts of data are being collected in the healthcare system from high throughput genomics, wearable devices, and electronic patient records. This course will provide you with the necessary data science skills required to analyse such large datasets.
We will cover the various data analysis steps from loading and transforming data to visualization, statistical analysis, and machine learning (both supervised and unsupervised learning).
You will learn about tools that can help make clear and reproducible analyses such as software for version control and workflow management and be introduced to the use of High-Performance Computing (HPC) and parallelization.
The course will be hands-on where you will analyse relevant data sets combined with a systematic review of the various methods and tools, including sources of error, variation, and uncertainty.
The data analysis will be done using R (tidyverse) and experience with the use of R is an advantage. Experience with R can possibly be gained by self-study in connection with the course.
Teaching form
Combined on campus and online sessions, project work and report writing. The course concludes with interdisciplinary group work based on a case.
For more details about the course, please refer to the course curriculum.
View all courses on:
Course directors on »Data Science«
Jakob Skou Pedersen
Professor
Søren Besenbacher
Associate Professor
Course details for »Data Science«
Dates and examination
Place
Aarhus University
Course dates
1 May 2026 – online
7–8 May 2026 – online or on campus*
13 and 22 May 2026 – online
28–29 May 2026 – on campus
12 June 2026 – online
19 June 2026 – online presentation of portfolio
*May 7-8 you can choose whether you would like to attend physically or online.
The course is available every other spring.
Maximum 30 participants.
Examination
Please find the exam dates in the exam plan.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, you will be able to:
-
understand the principles behind Tidyverse's data handling, visualisation, modeling, and analysis
-
gain knowledge of different machine learning methods (both supervised and unsupervised learning) and when they can be applied
-
learn to use high performance computing (HPC) for analysing large data sets
-
use Tidyverse to perform a complete data analysis, starting from the acquisition and formatting of raw data, through visualisation, to modelling and inference
-
follow and critically assess scientific analyses of large data sets, evaluating the possibilities and limitations of different machine learning methods in relation to various uses and the amount of data available.
Admission criteria
You must meet the following criteria to be admitted to this course:
-
An education as a Biomedical Laboratory Scientist, or a Master’s degree in Health Sciences, Natural and Bioscientific Sciences, Technical Sciences, or a related field. A Master’s degree with a background in Social Sciences, Law, Humanities, or similar disciplines is also eligible.
-
2 years of professional experience in a clinical, research, or academic field, addressing issues related to personalised medicine.
-
Be proficient in English.
Find more detailed information about the admission criteria on Master of Personalised Medicine (website in Danish).
Priority is given to enrolled students
This course is offered as an elective course on the Master of Personalised Medicine programme (website in Danish). Priority is given to students already enrolled on Master of Personalised Medicine. Once the enrolled students have been admitted to the course, the remaining seats are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Tuition fees
EU/EEA citizens
11.500 DKK
Non EU/EAA Citizens
15.500 DKK
More information
All course information is available in the course curriculum:Place
Aarhus University
Aarhus, Denmark
Jakob Skou Pedersen
Professor
Jakob Skou Pedersen is a Professor of Bioinformatics at the Department of Molecular Medicine and the Bioinformatics Research Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark.
His field of research is computational genomics, and he is interested in statistical method development and large-scale data analysis. His past contributions have spanned diverse areas, including comparative genomics, RNA structure prediction, RNA biology, ancient DNA, and cancer genomics.
His current research uses Generative AI and Bayesian modeling for computational genomics, focusing on applications within circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and single-cell data analysis.
Søren Besenbacher
Associate Professor
Søren Besenbacher er lektor i bioinformatik på Molekylær Medicinsk Afdeling (MOMA), Aarhus Universitet. I hans forskning bruger han statistiske og datalogiske metoder til at løse problemer inden for menskelig genomforskning. En af hans primære forskningsinteresser er at studere og modelere de mutationsprocesser der skaber nye mutation i mennesker.
Derudover arbejder hans forskningsgruppe på at lave nye metoder til at identificere om et individ har kræft udfra sekvensdata fra celle frit-DNA i blodet.