Development of an introductory big data programming and concepts course

Computer scientists have been developing techniques to glean useful information from datasets for decades. The nascent disciplines of Big Data and Data Science have evolved over the last 10 years due to the rapid explosion in the amount of data collected by scientists, businesses, and other organizations. It is imperative that the next generation of workers is educated with the necessary knowledge to confront Big Data problems. It is the role of higher education institutions to train future data scientists and Big Data practitioners to fill those positions that the marketplace needs. This paper describes the choices and decisions made by one higher education institution to develop a course in Big Data Programming and Concepts that will be part of a future concentration in Data Science.