How Universities can Benefit from Using Big Data by Gennady Barsky

How a University can Benefit with Big Data

A recent article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle revealed one of the most exciting things happening in Big Data these days…and it could be happening at a university near you.

Solomon Abiola, a research associate at the University of Rochester, is currently developing smartphone technology to assist in monitoring possible Ebola outbreaks. So, if that eventuality occurs, a smartphone will notify users.

According to the article, Abiola is leveraging a grant from the National Science Foundation to launch a pilot program in Lagos, Nigeria. One hundred people will be given Abiola’s app – called Node – which will then record their locations.

Then, when a user is about to enter an area known to be riskier for the Ebola virus, they app will notify that user and, if necessary, suggest that they come in for testing.

Of course, this is just one way in which researchers and research universities are employing big data in their work. Nearly every major research university is investing in higher performance computing resources dedicated to the field of data science. We want to know more, and we want to be able to turn that base knowledge into actionable intelligence.

That is only possible with Big Data. Without the ability to sort through massive amounts of data, using computers and protocols specifically designed for the task, this pursuit would become overwhelming, if not impossible.

Coupling this capacity and computation with the various research disciplines already active at any major research university proves to be a promising match. Big Data is already being used to revolutionize sciences including biomedicine, linguistics, and psychiatry.

But research is not the only way that Big Data is being used on college campuses. Admissions departments are employing data to improve their marketing and student selection processes.

Streamlining workflows that involve so many variables – from demographics to grades to federal and state laws – requires the data-extrapolation power that only Big Data can deliver.

In addition, data science is quickly becoming a popular major on many top college campuses.

Students interested in computer science and technology degrees are gravitating toward data science because they can already see the increasing demand for those skills. With the job market in data science already exploding and more companies investing deeper in Big Data applications, the need for skilled data scientists is expected to increase substantially in the coming decades.

Again, the University of Rochester proves to be an example of this trend. The college plans to unveil a one-year master’s degree in data science this coming fall. According to the D&C article, within a month of the program being announced, 25 students were already enrolled. And that demand is just the tip of the iceberg. Now, armed with approval for a bachelor’s degree in data science, the University of Rochester hired at least 20 faculty members to staff this program.

Some might assume this is a big step, but UR is not doing anything that many other universities have not already done. Data science is the “it” degree in the tech field, and the schools with the best programs will get the best candidates. That, in and of itself, will begin to transform the science and technology departments at these participatory schools, leading to an eventual acrossthe-board change in colleges and universities across the globe.

Gennady Barsky is a real estate mogul who embraces technology and social media