Familiarity with a programming language is not necessary, but will be helpful that at least one group member for the group assignment has some basic knowledge of Python, R, or Julia. The course includes some walkthrough sessions and offline tutorials for basic programming coding in Python for shipping data analytics before the group assignment.
Background knowledge in finance (discounting and net present value, options), microeconomics (supply and demand functions, elasticities), and statistics (probability distributions, expectation, standard deviation, variance, and regressions). If you need some extra help remembering these concepts or just a basic understanding to get started at the beginning of the semester, the instructor will upload additional materials to assist you.