The Analytics Academy demystifies Big Data Buzzwords through a Unique Course
Just after Easter, on the 29th and 30th of March, the first edition of Big Data for Managers, a course organized by the Analytics Academy, took place. We taught 18 senior managers from Dutch businesses and the public sector the essentials of Big Data Analytics, and how it provides advantages for their organizations. I am happy to say that the course was a success. The evaluations were great. One of the participants said: “A great turbo lecture about big data from A to Z. Excellent!”
The program consisted of multiple lectures and workshops, each aimed to provide the participants with knowledge directly applicable in their day-to-day job. The first day started with a lecture by University of Amsterdam Professor Hans Borgman. The lecture explored the urgency to use analytics in any type of business using examples from Amazon and Airbnb. Afterwards, Patrick Hennen (MD of Analytics and Optimization at ORTEC) taught the participants about Analytics Maturity and addressed definitions and relationships between different Big Data terms.
Participants used this knowledge in the subsequent workshop around Analytics Maturity, where they scored their own organization based on the frameworks shared by Patrick. Results from the workshop showed that most organizations, whether public or private, large or small, encounter similar challenges in the domain of Big Data and Analytics.
After lunch, Maarten Soomer (PhD and Assistant Professor in Analytics at the University of Amsterdam) spoke about the added value of analytics for organizations, providing the audience with a clear data science process which is applicable for most data oriented projects. This was followed by a case study presented by Lex Knape on Renault’s path to becoming a data-driven company. We concluded the first day with a great diner at restaurant “de Plantage” where we discussed the lessons learned.
The second day promised to be more in depth, with lectures by Ronald Buitenhek (PhD) and Steven van Dijk (PhD) on Analytics Methodologies and Big Data technology. Ronald classified the most important methods in today’s Analytics-arena with respect to applicability, interpretability and accuracy. He explained one of the many machine learning algorithms (Decisions Trees) in depth and provided useful takeaways for pitfalls like overfitting and interpreting models. Steven demystified buzzwords like Hadoop and Distributed Processing, addressing questions like:
- When do you really need a Hadoop cluster?
- What exactly are the technical issues related to Big Data?The course can be summarized in the following quote from one of the participants: “Really good overview and in-depth examples from really experienced people.”
- We are very proud to have hosted the first edition of Big Data for Managers and are determined to keep demystifying Big Data buzzwords, helping managers define a Big Data and Analytics strategy. Want to join the next session, or know someone who might be interested? The next course is planned on the 6th and 7th of June 2016. Register here.
- The program ended with a Harvard case study conducted by Marc Salomon (Dean of Amsterdam Business School), yielding interesting opportunities for participants’ own organizations.
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