During the middle of October we organized a one week long workshop for students focusing on Big Data Environment & Effective Work With Data. One of the main organizers was Jan Luhan, who is a lecturer at Faculty of Business and Management (Brno University of Technology) with a great experience of data analytics and Business Intelligence.
What was the Dataweek about?
Big Data Analytics - Data Week was workshop dedicated to Big Data Environment and Effective Work with Data. It is one of the thematic workshops planned in Chedteb project with a focus on testing content and teaching approaches developed in the project outputs.
In this workshop, we have tried to experiment with cross-disciplinary approach on all levels.
Our lecturers, trainers and speakers were a combination of scientists, academic lecturers and company data analyses specialists. Based on this we tried to combine different approaches from scientific analyses of big data environment and its technology, through potential applications of Big data in the business environment in use cases, to practical solutions of real problems from different fields.
We have also adjusted the application procedure to this cause, to get a variety of participating students with different backgrounds, skills and fields of study and even nationalities. With that, we were able to build teams that could use a synergic effect for efficient work on various tasks during the Data Week.
For efficient work, we used the environment of the Faculty of Business and Management with a combination of company visits and places for social activities supporting open discussions, team building and cooperative work.
Who were the lecturers/speakers?
The key persons for our Data Week were a combination of academic and scientific persons and data analytics professionals. I would like to mention for example Prof. Sherif Sakr who is the Head of Data Systems Group at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu with a research interest in data and information management in general, particularly in big data processing systems, big data analytics, data science and big data management in cloud computing platforms. He introduced to the participants the Big Data Environment in a wide range of technologies, applications and current trends in the development of this area.
Another excellent person of our Data Week Team is the professor of Economics and Management Margareta Teodorescu who faced various challenges in various sectors of industry and service industries, including consulting, financial services (at Allianz) and telecommunications (at Vodafone), as a generalist or specialist during her professional career. She presented Long Term Opportunities and Impact of Big Data Analytics in the Corporate Environment and Beyond on selected case studies. Together we prepared a team competition focused on Big Data Analytics application on selected businesses.
It was also a pleasure to work with Martin Fridrich who is Data Science and Analytic Lead in Alza.cz a.s. who with his colleague Josef Brechler prepared a practical application of Data Science projects in the field of Retail focused on Recommendation Engine and Time series prediction.
I must also mention Jan Budik who is a specialist in the field of Financial Markets and who gave the participants an insight into the area of Data Analyses on Financial Markets and Performance Analyses of Investment Strategy.
There were also other people (from BUT, Alza, Tartu, Bielefeld, and corporate sector) who actively supported and prepared our Data Week even though they cannot actively work with the participants. I would like to thank to all of them.
Who were the participants and what is their background?
Participants of our Data Week were an exceptional group of people. It was a great combination of nationalities (i.e. Czech, German, Estonian, Kosovo, Nicaraguan, Armenian, Georgian, etc.), fields of study on both levels - bachelors (like International Studies in Management, Business Administration, Managerial Informatics, ...) and masters (Innovation and Technology Management, Master of Arts in Social Sciences (Quantitative Economics), Information Management, ...). Most of our participants also have a practical experience of different sectors and of international activities all around the world. This was an excellent combination of technical, business and managerial knowledge, skills and experience that could fit together and give new perspectives to all participants and even the lecturers and trainers.
In one sentence, it was great to work with such a group.
Which outputs were they focusing on?
The whole Data Week was divided into three parts.
The first part was dedicated to Big Data Environment & Technology and guided the participants (and teams) through the world of Big Data. The teams were able to demonstrate their understanding of this area through the application of Big Data Analytics on real corporates and businesses and did it as a team competition with interesting, creative and innovative solutions.
The second part was dedicated to the area of Data Science and Effective work with data which involved solving practical issues from the real world of retail and financial markets using R language and Python for the solution. The participants were able to practice and demonstrate solutions to selected issues under the supervision of data analytics professionals.
The third part focused on the area of Digital transformation of business and was closely connected to a company visit to Alza.cz a. s. as a practical example of continual development and innovations in the conditions of Czech Republic and beyond.
Through the whole week, there was a social programme for participants to encourage their knowledge sharing, discussions and sharing experience in a formal and also informal environment.
As a finishing point, the individual project was assigned as a demonstration of gained knowledge, skills and understanding in the area of Big Data Analytics.
How would you evaluate the Dataweek?
What should I say as a summary of our Data Week? It was an excellent time that we spent together. It was really an inspiring, creative and fruitful time. As far as I know, some of the teams still continue working on different projects and the whole group even established a social group that could possibly work together in the future. Maybe I could end with a question one participant asked me: "Would it be possible to have more events like Data Week in our learning process?"
