The specialization “Data Science” is a unique offering at KIT primarily targeting Industrial Engineering & Management as well as Information Engineering & Management students on the master level. Four core “Data Science” modules are offered by professors of the Institute of Information Systems and Marketing (IISM). Additionally, further relevant lectures are recommended from other fields, e.g. Operations Research, Computer Science, Econometrics/Statistics in order to complement the core four modules.

The specialization “Data Science” is driven by the Institute of Information Systems and Marketing (IISM) that is focusing in research and education on various perspectives of data-driven concepts in business and society. IISM was founded in 2003 and combines the Schroff chair for Information Services and Electronic Markets EM   (Prof. Dr. Andreas Geyer-Schulz) and the chair for Information & Engineering IM   (Prof. Dr. Christof Weinhardt). In 2012, the Institute of Decision Theory and Management joined IISM. With the integration of the new Marketing & Sales Research Group M&S   (Prof. Dr. Martin Klarmann) the institute was named Institute of Information Systems and Marketing. In 2015 the two research groups "Information Systems & Service Design" (ISSD) (Prof. Dr. Alexander Maedche) and Services Marketing ServM (Prof. Dr. Ju-Young Kim) joined IISM. Today, five research groups work in education, research, and innovation in the field of Information Systems and Marketing with a strong focus of creating value out of data.