Data Engineering in Disguise

This course introduces students to the core principles of data engineering, emphasizing the often-hidden ethical choices that shape how massive datasets are managed. Students will learn about the fundamentals of data architecture, storage, and processing, while exploring critical values issues such as privacy, biases, data provenance, ownership, and copyright. This course interweaves the ethical considerations with the technical mechanics of data engineering, which exemplifies the real-world choices data engineers make as well as their broader societal implications. By the end of the course, students will understand not just the technical foundations of data engineering, but also the value-laden decisions involved in handling large-scale data.