SGIT of John Keells Group grooms university undergrads to become ‘data scientists’
Thursday, 19 February 2015 00:00
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The role of a ‘data scientist’ emerges as one which is currently in high demand globally, with the advent of ‘big data’. Recognising the importance of building a culture that brews data scientists from our talented local university undergrads, Strategic Group IT (SGIT) of John Keells commenced a series of workshops, with its first being conducted for the students of Statistics and Computing departments of the Sri Jayawardenapura University.
Big data refers to large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations. By analysing data sets from many sources, patterns that are useful for businesses or any other field can be derived. These patterns can, for example, help to identify a new customer behaviour which can increase sales, identify disease causing genes in full human genome and more importantly, bring science into innovative decision making on a daily basis.
A recent report released by McKinsey Global Institute concludes that the shortage of the analytical and management talent necessary, to make the most of big data, is a significant and pressing challenge for the US. The report estimates, that there will be approximately five million jobs in the US requiring big data analysis skills by 2018, and that large numbers of positions will only be filled through training or retraining. Harvard Business Review named Data Scientist as the ‘Sexiest Job of the 21st Century’, highlighting the importance of the new job role.
Recognising the importance of grooming professionals to fill these emerging positions, many foreign universities have introduced ‘data science’ in to their curriculum. “The workshops offered by a firm like SGIT that understands the future needs of the businesses, will help our students select a prospective career,” says Dr. Ravindra Lokupitiya of Department of Statistics, Sri Jayewardenepura University.
Similar to Computer Science, Data Science has its roots in a number of related areas, including math, engineering and management. With this in mind, SGIT selected a mix of statistics and computing undergraduates to conduct their first ‘data science’ workshop. As students of statistics have the perfect platform to be data scientists, John Keells Holdings PLC Assistant Vice President Harsha Senanayake addressing a large number of undergrads of University of Sri Jayewardenepura said, “Being a data scientist is a lucrative career and SGIT plans to organise similar workshops in other universities as well.”
