The University of Utah’s College of Engineering received approval this week for its new graduate certificate program in big data.

This emerging field – which addresses large sets of data too complex, diverse or rapidly changing for one computer to handle – affects everything from studying traffic patterns to managing sensitive information online. Big data is also big business – for example, using big data to improve efficiency and quality in the health care sector is estimated to be worth more than $300 billion each year.

“We’re seeing a revolution in the availability of data. It’s easy to collect information, but processing and analyzing large stores of data is becoming increasingly difficult. We are at the point where the traditional analytical tools for attacking this problem are breaking down,” says Jeff Phillips, assistant professor of computer science and coordinator of the new program.

Read more in the U News Center