Understanding renewable energy technologies is important, but equally important is knowing how to effectively deploy these technologies to provide renewable energy to end-users – the topic of this course. Upon completion of the course, you will understand the development and management of renewable energy projects, large and small, from conception to launch and subsequent operation. This course will teach you to plan, execute, and operate renewable energy projects such as solar PV plants, wind farms, and geothermal generators. We first describe how to develop a renewable energy feasibility study and make go-no-go project decisions. We then examine project site selection and evaluation of renewable technology alternatives and technology vendors. Next, we review methods for financing and organizing renewable energy projects. The course concludes with an examinations of project construction, operations and maintenance, repowering, and plant decommissioning. These capabilities will round out your understanding of renewable energy uses and deployment – come join us! Note that this course is the third in a four-course Coursera specialization in Renewable Energy: 1. Renewable Energy Technology Fundamentals 2. Renewable Power Systems 3. Renewable Energy Projects 4. Renewable Energy Futures

In this 1-hour long project-based course, you will learn the basics of using Tableau Public software to visualize Citibike Trips Dataset. By the end of this project, you will have created a few visualizations and a collection of visualizations called a dashboard. Note: This course works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We’re currently working on providing the same experience in other regions.

One of the biggest changes in the past decade is the rapid adoption of machine learning, AI, and big data in investment decision making. This course introduces learners with knowledge of the investment industry to foundational statistical concepts underpinning machine learning as well as advanced AI techniques. This course demonstrates core modeling frameworks along with carefully selected real-world investment practice examples. The course seeks to familiarize learners with two important programming languages — Python and R (no prior knowledge of Python or R necessary). The motivation is to demonstrate the elegance — and speed — simple programming brings to the investment decision-making process. The reading material in this course offers in-practice insights curated from the blogs of CFA Institute as well as other leading publications. After taking this course you will be able to: - Describe the importance of identifying information patterns for building models - Explain probability concepts for solving investing problems - Explain the use of linear regression and interpret related Python and R code - Describe gradient descent, explain logistic regression, and interpret Python and R code - Describe the characteristics and uses of time-series models This course is part of the Data Science for Investment Professionals Specialization offered by CFA Institute.

This course provides a brief introduction to the fundamentals of finance, emphasizing their application to a wide variety of real-world situations spanning personal finance, corporate decision-making, and financial intermediation. Key concepts and applications include: time value of money, risk-return tradeoff, cost of capital, interest rates, retirement savings, mortgage financing, auto leasing, capital budgeting, asset valuation, discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, net present value, internal rate of return, hurdle rate, payback period.

Storytelling is an essential part of leadership. Effective leaders communicate to inspire talent to excel; to partner with investors and communities; to engage with customers and clients and to grow their impact in the world as part of a global community. Cultivating an authentic, trustworthy and compelling narrative is vital to a leader’s success. This course helps leaders find their own story through personal branding; develop storytelling success with all constituencies; initiate an effective voice for crisis; interact well through social and third party media; and communicate a vision for innovation.

The capstone for the specialization will provide a learning experience that integrates across all the courses within it. It will involve analysis of a situation concerning a new enterprise – a venture of one’s own or within a larger organization – to develop the current business model and compare against alternative business models so as to identify potential opportunities and challenges.

In this 2-hour long project-based course, you will be able to create pages and modules within the Canvas LMS. This will benefit your business as you will be able to input training content into pages and then organize the pages into comprehensible chunks for your team. You will also learn how to view specific user analytic details. Note: This course works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We’re currently working on providing the same experience in other regions.

In this 1-hour long project-based course, you will learn how to create a profile and network on LinkedIn. We will go step by step-by-step through this project so you can build a profile if you do not have one or strengthen your current one if you do. You will also learn about the tools and options offered by LinkedIn to assist you. We will explore the basics of how to set-up an engaging profile. You may even learn something you do not already know to make your current profile stand out above the rest. Some learning objectives that we will cover include building a profile that sends a professional message with your banner and your personalized URL code as well as knowing how to share your URL code. We will expand your network by learning how to make connection requests professionally. And we will go through following people, pages, groups and hashtags. Note: This course works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We’re currently working on providing the same experience in other regions.

Put your investment and portfolio management knowledge to the test through five weeks of hands-on investment experiences: • Developing and managing your own simulated investment portfolio, resulting in a peer-graded report covering portfolio strategy, analysis, and performance • Advising case study clients on a variety of investment topics, essentially acting as an investment advisor in a simulated environment recommending strategies for and changes in portfolios based on challenges and issues faced by your clients • Using the sophisticated web-based analytical tools of Silicon Cloud Technologies LLC’s Portfolio Visualizer including portfolio mean variance optimization, historical and forecasted efficient frontiers, Fama-French factor models, and many more Your capstone experiences are directly applicable to managing real world investment portfolios and the final report can be shared with family, friends, and potential or current employers. By the end of the capstone project, you will have incorporated concepts from all four courses, including: • Analyzing multiple asset classes • Asset allocation and risk management • Current market trends • Behavioral finance • Investment styles and strategies • Financial market innovation • Investment performance evaluation

The capstone will integrate the learning acquired from the four courses in the 3D Printing Specialization through a hands-on project. This project will enable you to turn an idea into an object using the knowledge and skills acquired through the other courses. Specifically, you will be guided through a step-by-step process in which you imagine, design, make, and share a 3D printed object. Thus, through this capstone, you will be able to put course concepts into action and utilize the skills that you have acquired throughout the Specialization. In addition, you will be able to obtain an actual 3D print of the object you design at a discounted price through our corporate partners, 3D Hubs and Shapeways. If you enjoy this business course and are interested in an MBA, consider applying to the iMBA, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price offered by the University of Illinois. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.