Center for Business Analytics Data Science Symposium Presentations Now Available
Center wraps successful year of virtual programming, looks ahead to 2021
By Larry Porter
The University of Cincinnati's Center for Business Analytics has wrapped its 2020 programming year with its eighth annual Data Science Symposium.
This data science and analytics event, typically held in-person at UC’s Carl H. Lindner Hall, was converted to a four-session virtual event held on consecutive Tuesdays throughout October.
The event attracted more than 1,000 global data science practitioners and leaders representing small and large companies from a wide variety of industries, as well as analytics and data science students and faculty from several institutions.
“The advancement of the business analytics field relies on experts and partners collaborating, sharing research findings and uncovering new trends together,” said Center for Business Analytics Executive Director Glenn Wegryn. “In spite of 2020’s challenges, our center’s pivot to virtual programming has enabled us to engage with more data science practitioners and leaders around the world to do exactly that.”
Each session featured a keynote speaker and two additional presentations. Speakers came from companies such as Kroger, 84.51, Fifth Third Bank, Amazon Web Services, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Beta Vector and UC.
In spite of 2020’s challenges, our center’s pivot to virtual programming has enabled us to engage with more data science practitioners and leaders around the world.
Glenn Wegryn, Executive Director, Center for Business Analytics
Keynote speakers included:
- Jason Pontin, Senior Advisor, Flagship Pioneering
- Topic: Future impacts of technology
- Marshall Fisher, UPS Professor, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
- Topic: Sell what you’ve made vs. make what’s selling
- Radhika Kulkarni, Vice President, Advanced Analytics, SAS (Retired)
- Topic: Building analytics teams for success
- Jude Schramm, CIO, Fifth Third Bancorp
- Topic: Adopting data and analytics into the fiber of a company
“The Data Science Symposium gave me an opportunity to listen to real-world examples of how data science is being used,” said Aubree Lewis, BBA ’22.
Lewis said she particularly enjoyed Fisher’s presentation, “Sell what you’ve made vs. make what’s selling.”
“As someone who grew up with social media, it is fascinating to see that companies are now able to use social media mining to find new insights on their consumers,” she said.
A panel discussion on “Future Impacts of Technology” was moderated by Jason Pontin and featured panelists Jude Schramm, Craig Brabec, VP/Chief Analytics Officer at MacDonald’s, and Carlos Amesquita, former CIO at the Hershey Company.
The Center for Business Analytics has made videos of the keynote speaker presentations and panel available for viewing for all interested in learning about data management, analytics or data science industry.
“Since in-person networking and professional development is not possible right now, we made our content available in this way to provide as much value as possible,” said Wegryn. “With many professionals working remotely or from home, they can’t always join us in real-time, so publishing the symposium presentations gives them the flexibility to watch on their schedule.”
The 2021 calendar is already filling up for the Center for Business Analytics. In addition for training classes and courses open to the public, the center will host the Analytics Summit, virtually on April 6, May 4 and June 8. The summit will feature real-world applications of business analytics and “tech talks” in each session.
About the UC Center for Business Analytics
The University of Cincinnati’s Center for Business Analytics is a corporate-academic partnership that promotes the use of data driven analytical methods. The Center serves its’ members and the community through leadership development, presentation of two annual analytics events, professional analytics training, connecting business organizations to Lindner College of Business analytics students for research and projects, and managing analytics consulting projects using faculty and university resources. UC’s Center for Business Analytics is here to serve organizations-locally and nationally- to be best in class in analytics.
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