Learn Targeted Abilities and Advance Your Career.
Develop new capabilities by completing an undergraduate certificate. Courses are higher-level and certificates can be completed on their own, or be accumulated into a degree later. These programs are built for exactly where you are right now: working, experienced, and ready to advance yourself at work. Complete courses on your schedule, at your pace, and with an RPI degree at the end.
• 100% Online • Project-Based • 12 Credit Hours (Two Courses) • Gateway to the Engineering Certificates • Stackable Toward the B.Tech
About the Certificate
Data is only valuable when it leads to better decisions. In this certificate, you'll learn to prepare, visualize, and analyze data to answer questions, solve problems, and support confident decision-making. You'll apply statistical techniques to evaluate results, identify meaningful patterns, and build forecasts that inform future action. Through project-based learning, you'll use real-world data to develop practical analytical capabilities you can apply immediately in the workplace.
What You Will Be Able to Do
- Frame business questions that can be answered with data and analytics
- Collect, clean, and prepare data for meaningful analysis and decision-making
- Summarize and present data using descriptive statistics, tables, and effective data visualizations
- Evaluate risk and uncertainty by applying probability concepts and building spreadsheet-based analytical models
- Analyze relationships and validate results using statistical methods to support confident decision-making
- Interpret findings and communicate insights that inform real business decisions and solve practical problems
- Forecast future outcomes using data-driven models to support planning and strategic decision-making
Required Courses
Learn to deploy statistics to inform questions and solve problems. You will use probability and distribution theory to determine likely outcomes, construct spreadsheet-based models with identified risk and variable elements, calculate probabilities around risk variables to determine most likely outcomes, determine confidence intervals around unknowns, use Solver to determine likely outcomes in your models, and calculate descriptive statistics and ranges around basic data sets.
Number of Credits: 6
Using the RPI Analytical framework, you will learn how to use data techniques to inform questions, solve problems, and make decisions specifically within the areas of production, operations, and management. You will deploy decision-making and problem-solving frameworks, using data visualization, summarization, and statistical testing techniques. You will clean and prepare data, use graphical and summary table analysis, including AI, and test data hypotheses, using results to inform decisions and solutions, enhancing the likelihood of making the best possible decision.
Number of Credits: 6
Learn by Doing
Every course is built around authentic workplace challenges—not hypothetical case studies. You'll solve real operational and management problems, receive personalized feedback from faculty mentors with industry expertise, and demonstrate your progress through applied projects rather than quizzes. A small number of live evening sessions provide opportunities to engage with faculty and classmates, while the rest of your coursework is completed on your schedule. Live sessions are recorded, and all required digital learning materials are included with tuition. Courses begin each January, May, and at the end of August.
Stack Your Certificate Toward a Bachelor's Degree
Every certificate in RPI at Work's Bachelor of Technology in Production and Operations Management program is designed to stand on its own while also counting toward the degree. The credits you earn in this certificate apply directly to the bachelor's program, allowing you to build your education one credential at a time.
Complete all five undergraduate certificates and the required capstone project to earn your Bachelor of Technology degree—without repeating coursework or losing credit along the way.
Ready to Advance Your Career?
Organizations increasingly rely on employees who can turn data into better decisions. This certificate is designed for professionals who are preparing for greater responsibility and want to strengthen their analytical capabilities. Whether you're improving operations, supporting engineering initiatives, or preparing for supervisory roles, you'll learn to use data with confidence while building the foundation for RPI's advanced engineering certificates.
Analysts, coordinators, supervisors, and managers who want to ground their decisions in data, and anyone planning to pursue the Process and Quality Engineering or Engineering Projects and Systems certificates, which require this certificate as a prerequisite first.
Admissions
We've designed this program for working adults who are ready to take the next step in their careers. To be eligible for admission, you'll need a completed associate's degree from an accredited institution and at least three years of professional work experience. Every application is reviewed holistically, and our enrollment team is happy to discuss your background, answer your questions, and help you determine whether the program is the right fit. With fall, spring, and summer start terms, you can begin when the time is right for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. You will work primarily with spreadsheet-based models and analysis tools, along with visualization and AI-assisted techniques. The certificate is designed for working professionals, not programmers.
The Process and Quality Engineering and Engineering Projects and Systems certificates build directly on the data preparation, statistical analysis, and visualization foundations you develop here. Completing this certificate first ensures you are ready for that work.
Yes. This certificate is one of the five building blocks of the B.Tech in Production and Operations Management. Complete all five plus a capstone project to earn the degree. Nothing you complete here is wasted.
Start Building What's Next
Whether you're ready to earn your first certificate, complete your bachelor's degree, or simply explore your options, we're here to help you find the path that's right for your career. Connect with an enrollment specialist to discuss your goals, review your background, and take the next step with confidence.