The Master of Science in Data Science and Social Systems offered by Mexico City Institute of Technology is intended to prepare our students to:
Instead of teaching students to ask important questions and then look for relevant empirical evidence, techniques and literature to find answers, the current economics and business curriculum often allows the availability of techniques to determine the range of questions asked. To amend this situation, MexicoTech’s Faculty members agree on the need to infuse the curriculum not only with mathematics, complexity science, system dynamics, new theoretical approaches to economics, and data science, but also with humanistic, artistic, historical, philosophical and institutional content to prepare students to become lifelong learners, think critically, communicate effectively, and participate ethically in a democratic nation and a global society.
Our students are expected to:
Students are required to take rigorous courses in humanities, system dynamics, mathematics, microeconomics, macroeconomics, machine learning, and programming. and, depending on their interests, they have to develop a research project one of the following fields: Economics, Business, and Public Policy.
| Course | Content |
|---|---|
| First Term | |
| Western Civilization | This course aims to analyze the evolution of human thought from the Greeks to the twentieth century to deeply understand our civilization and its future. |
| Economy I | The course of Economy I seeks to provide students with an overview of the economic problems, as observed in the real world and that are regularly associated with microeconomic theory. In this course the student will learn the conventional theories of microeconomics and some theoretical alternatives that aim to solve some of their weaknesses. The empirical evidence that is analyzed in the course will prove that a new microeconomic theory is necessary, of which an outline will be given in this course. |
| Programming for Data Analysis | The purpose of this course is to help students develop the analytical and quantitative skills required to understand the formalization and simulation of the theories and models that are common in economics, business and public policy. |
| Data Visualization | The Data Visualization course is about how to make sense of data, present clear evidence of findings, and tell interesting stories through data graphs. In the course, students will progress through the key steps of data visualization. The practical lessons will focus on techniques for data preparation and how to choose, create and edit graphics and best practices to present them visually. As businesses, governments and other institutions generate and capture increasing amounts of data, the ability to interpret and present ideas persuasively is more crucial now than ever. |
| Second Term | |
| Contemporary Problems and their Solutions | This course aims to analyze the evolution of human thinking and its problems from the twentieth century to the present so that students can have a right judgments and well-founded opinions, and options to solve these problems. |
| Economy II | After the crisis of 2008-2009 macroeconomic theory and finances showed substantial weaknesses in the way they describe economic reality. In this course the traditional models of macroeconomics and their conceptual problems will be reviewed, and some perspectives will be analyzed to solve them. Emphasis will be put on models that have criticized the neoclassical theories. |
| Analytical Methods for Social Sciences | Although the word econometrics literally means “economic measurement”, the scope of this branch of economic science is much broader, since it consists of the application of mathematical statistics to economic data to empirically prove the validity of theories, laws and economic models. Since this course is aimed at masters with specializations in economics, public policy and business, its objective is to provide students with the basic foundations to apply the basic tools of the methodology of econometrics to data from these fields of social sciences and with it give empirical support to some of his theories. |
| Machine Learning | Machine learning is the science of making computers act without being explicitly programmed. In the last decade, machine learning has provided us with autonomous automobiles, voice recognition, effective Internet search and a better understanding of the human genome. Machine learning is so widespread today that you probably use it dozens of times a day without knowing it. Many researchers also think that it is the best way to move towards AI at the human level. In this course students will learn and apply the most effective automatic learning techniques. And most importantly, they will learn not only the theoretical foundations of learning, but they will also gain the practical knowledge necessary to apply these techniques quickly and powerfully to new problems. |
| Third Term | |
| Increasing Returns Microeconomics | The course of increasing returns microeconomic is about the determinants of commercial success. In order to give a general overview of these determinants, the first part of the course offers a historical perspective on the field of strategy, both its formal part and its empirical content. One of the most interesting aspects of using historical methodology is that it will make it clear that proliferation is good, but that the time comes when a synthesis becomes essential to specify the fundamental issues, define common elements, contributions and limitations of new and old models and open new perspectives. That is why in the second part of the course a general model of business competence is developed that provides a more comprehensive perspective of industrial competition. The new business model is an adequate tool to do industrial analysis and design business strategies for any type of company competing in any kind of industry. The analysis of industrial competence will be the theoretical reference to understand how the organizational structures of the company and the problem of corporate governance arise. |
| Advanced Macroeconomics | Conventional macroeconomic theory has been strongly questioned after the global financial crisis that began in 2007. One of the main criticisms is that it has stayed away from reality and proof of this is that it was not able to foresee the crisis of 2008-2009 that to date has not ceased to be a threat to the growth of many economies and the welfare of millions of people. In this course the traditional models of macroeconomics are studied in greater depth, their weaknesses will be determined and alternative theories that explain reality will be proposed. |
| Political Science and Public Policy | The aim of the course is to familiarize students with some elements of political thought and political theory. The student must acquire the ability to interpret and evaluate political ideas independently, in some cases through the reading of classical sources. On the one hand, the purpose is to try to understand what may seem strange (or insidiously familiar); On the other hand, our objective is to judge the truth and the fecundity of the texts and arguments of politicians. |
| System Dynamics | In the Systems Dynamics course, students will have the opportunity to use the most modern software for computer simulation that will give him first-hand experience and provide him with the skills to understand and solve problems with a high degree of complexity. Students will learn how to recognize and deal with situations where political interventions are likely to be delayed, diluted or have no effect from unanticipated reactions and side effects. |
| Fourth Term | |
| Institutional Economics | The Institutional Economics course is designed to give an introduction to the field of new institutional economy and comparative political economy, with a focus on basic theory and contemporary empirical research. The course describes how institutions create incentives for economic agents and how they influence economic performance in various contexts. The course will also study how institutions arise and how their development is measured. |
| Decision Making | The Decision-Making course aims to provide the tools to make decisions in complex and important situations faced by businesses, companies, governments and people throughout their lives. In the course, the student will learn to break down a decision into its simplest components and will study what is needed to distinguish between a "difficult" decision and a "risky" decision. The student will also understand that the decision-making expert is a person who has the ability to value scenarios, detect and measure uncertainties, create alternatives, and design decision models in order to capture the greatest possible value. Finally, the student will understand that the expert in decision making is a person who is aware of the irrational nature of people, so is prepared to design and implement complex decisions that break paradigms and generate new areas of opportunity. |
| Economy of Cities | In this course the student will understand the importance of cities in the economic growth, the creation of wealth, the development of technologies, international trade, finance, talent training, the creation of companies, the emergence of industrial clusters, the wealth distribution. Under this perspective the student will learn an economic theory of cities in which converge and integrate several fields of social sciences, such as the theory of international trade, the theory of finance, the theory of economic competition, among others. Through case studies of cities, the student will conclude that cities are a complex system that can only be understood through a theory that includes a considerable number of variables that cause each other and that describes thousands and sometimes millions of agents. |
| Research Project | In this course, students will have the opportunity to apply the analytical and theoretical tools they learned during the master program to a specific complex social or economic problem. |
MexicoTech will start its education projects in August 2021 launching this program.