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Education and Training in Data Science with University and Industry Partnerships

By Paramita (Guha) Ghosh on

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Modern enterprises have an immense responsibility to harness ever-evolving data technologies to get maximum business benefits. However, with new technological capabilities promising more value-added outcomes, global organizations face a challenge to recruit the most qualified Data Scientists and Data Analysts who can do justice to such promising technologies as Big Data, Hadoop or Predictive Analytics. Thus, while it is evident that businesses must continue to invest more in data technologies and tools, they must also provide the right kind of Data Science education and training to aspiring data professionals in order to successfully meet the business challenges of tomorrow.

The following resources serve as clear evidence of this business imperative:

Gartner’s Market Analysis

Gartner’s 2016 Magic Quadrant for Advanced Analytics Platforms identifies IBM, SAS, KNIME, and Rapid Miner as a few of the industry leaders who are the most likely candidates for guiding future market visions. Gartner suggests that each and every organization should include at least two of these leaders in their evaluation shortlist of typically five to eight vendors. Many of these organizations also place education as top priorities for their employees.

 
MGI Proclaims Big Data to be the Next Frontier for Innovation and Competition

McKinsey’s global research arm, The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) has provided extensive research-backed data in its report titled Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity, to prove that growing transactional databases, mobile commerce, multimedia content, popularity of social media, and sensor-aided gadgets all contribute to the exponential rise and accumulation of data in our everyday lives. As this trend continues, McKinsey warns that sophisticated Big Data technologies and able Big Data professionals will be needed soon to make sense of this torrential data flow and extract business value out of it.

Economic Times Labels 2016 the Year of Big Data

A recent Economic Times article reported that Data Scientists and Data Engineers were in high demand throughout 2015 and will be well into 2016.  Many organizations of various sizes have been frantically reaching out to Data Science boot camps and fellowship programs to recruit qualified professionals.

Data Science and Analytics Offer Enormous Opportunity

The above cited evidence demonstrates that in this increasingly data-driven business world, Data Science and Analytics are necessary opportunities waiting to be seized and utilized for complete transformation of business operations. However, Data Analytics cannot be captured within a set of technical skills; a skilled Analyst will have to be an expert in probing and uncovering business problems as well. The professional Data Scientists and Data Analysts must possess a combined wisdom of mathematical and statistical abilities, sophisticated problem-solving capabilities, and business insights.

The collective goal of education and training in Data Science and Analytics is to prepare the next generation of Data Scientists and Engineers for the new global data economy.

Data Science Educational Opportunities May not be There Yet

Jennifer Lewis Priestley, the creator of Kennesaw State University’s (KSU’s) Ph.D program in Data Science, candidly admitted during an SAS Analytics conference that most Data Scientists today do not have the depth or  breadth of analytical skills required for the coming decades. The implication of such an observation is that the current postgraduate-level academic programs in Data Science need to be redesigned to meet the skill gap challenge.

In recent times, many large corporations and reputed universities have jointly taken initiatives to address the skill gap. One visible outcome of this trend is that in the past five years, Master’s Programs in Data Science and Analytics at American universities have jumped to around 90.

One major skill gap has been identified as data cleansing techniques. DATAVERSITY® cited a recent survey that showed Data Scientist’s spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning data in the real world use cases. Do academic programs in Data Science provide enough exposure to data cleansing?

EMC’s Courseware for Data Science and Analytics

EMC offers a Data Science and Analytics courses via instructor-led and video-based curricula. This open courseware offers an introductory overview of the Data Analytics Lifecycle with reference to Big Data. The course is quite useful as it not only provides foundation skills in Data Analytics, but also introduces the student to Big Data tools like MapReduce and Hadoop. This course leads to the EMC Proven Professional Data Scientist Associate (EMCDSA) certification.

The “Advanced Methods in Data Science and Big Data Analytics” is another course that can be useful for the students who have completed the Associate level “Data Science and Big Data Analytics” course. This course teaches many advanced skills and leads to the Advanced Analytics Specialist (EMCDS) Certification.

CISCO’s Initiative for the Impending Data-Driven Era

In  Preparing for the Data Science-Driven Era, CISCO uses McKinsey Global Institute’s forecast for 2018, which suggests that the U.S. will face a “shortage of 190,000 skilled Data Scientists, and 1.5 million managers and analysts.”  This forecast presents a unique opportunity for university-industry partnership programs in Data Science and Analytics. The dual benefits of such collaborations may be increased exposure to sophisticated technologies for students and increased return-on-investments (ROI) for industries.

Cisco actively promotes a data culture throughout its enterprise. To promote education and training in Data Science, Cisco offers an introductory Data Science course to its employees. Cisco has also partnered with the University of Washington and North Carolina State University to offer a seven-month long Data Science course to selected employees. Additionally, Cisco leverages the student strength of over eight universities to create a pipeline of future workers. Cisco has set 2017 as the target for completing the construction of data labs in all its global campuses.

UNCC’s Role in Preparing the Data Scientists of Tomorrow

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) has taken a proactive role in supporting Data Science skill requirements of the local industries. UNCC’s Data Science Initiative (DSI) includes a university-industry partnership program to fulfill the state’s need for data professionals. The main partners of DSI – the College of Computing and Informatics and the Belk College of Business – have a proven track record of strategic relationships with the business community. DSI is well equipped to meet the skilled manpower needs of regional businesses.

The Professional Science Master’s (PSM) program in Data Science and Business Analytics (DSBA) is an interdisciplinary program between the Business, Computer and Information Sciences, Statistics, and Operations Research Departments.  This unique program leads to an M.S. in Data Science and Business Analytics.  The DSBA program has been designed such so that the graduates are well grounded to meet the day-to-day challenges of businesses.

 Columbia University’s Data Science Mission

The Data Science Institute at Columbia University functions as a research facility as well as an educational institute for Data Science. Here, students are exposed to real-world projects through an Institute-industry partnership. The Institute-industry engagements are implemented through an Industry Affiliates Program (IAP). The IAP works as a mediator between the Institute and the industry partners to identify specific goals and facilitate ongoing dialogue to achieve the goals.  The DSI comprises nine Schools at the Columbia University, thus providing a truly interdisciplinary environment.

Cloudera’s Academic Partnership Program (CAP)

In December 2015, Cloudera’s Academic Partnership Program (CAP) proudly announced a strong membership strength of 100 global universities, which turned out to be a 500% growth over its initial 2013 membership strength. This unique program embraces computer science students from countries all over the world, like Denmark, Israel, South Korea, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Germany. CAP, founded in 2012, engages in advanced research in state-of-the-art labs to benefit both the students and the institution.

In this global mission, industry and academic leaders like Cloudera, Harvard, and SAS have made a genuine collaborative effort to bring forth some amazing educational and training opportunities in both Data Science and Data Analytics to well prepare the next generation of data professionals for the business challenges lying ahead.

Harvard Extension School: Data Science Training

Harvard Extension School’s Data Science training mission includes a certification in Data Science, which can be obtained without any separate application and either through online or classroom modes. The participating student must complete four courses within three years and maintain a B average grade to receive the certification.

Online Listings for Education and Training Resources in Data Science

The following invaluable web resources contain comprehensive listings of educational and further training opportunities for Data Science and Analytics students and professionals at all levels:

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