The information explosion of the modern age has resulted in extremely large data sets and a need to understand how to analyze and make sense of big data. Advances in hardware, software and statistical techniques are giving rise to automated methods to analyze patterns and models for all kinds of data, with applications ranging from scientific discovery to business intelligence and analytics. As a result, data-driven decision making is quickly becoming the standard in almost every industry and has created an unprecedented demand for data-oriented professionals across a wide range of industries, organizations and disciplines. Given the volume of the data sets in question, it is nearly impossible to extract patterns, trends and behaviours without some degree of mathematical guidance and programming expertise.