Ted Rogers School of Management launches Zone Learning Analytics School
With the Internet of Things, social media and multimedia revolutionizing the way we communicate, industries are turning more to experts who can make sense of vast amounts of data generated by consumers to identify patterns and come up with solutions – with just a few clicks. To help bridge this skills gap, Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) is launching the Zone Learning Analytics School (external link, opens in new window) (ZLAS) to give undergraduate students an opportunity to learn about big data and provide analytics training.
“Thanks to funding from Ryerson’s Zone Learning and support from TRSM, I’m delighted that Ryerson will be among a few universities in Canada to provide big data education to undergraduate students,” said James Tieu, co-executive director and a fourth-year TRSM business management student who spearheaded the initiative. “Business is about decision making based on future outcomes; analytics will help you predict those outcomes more precisely.”
“Our faculty is proud to support James and his team on this initiative,” said Steven Murphy, dean of TRSM. “ZLAS is just one great example of the entrepreneurial and innovative drive our students have in seeking out new opportunities, coming up with a solid business plan and executing it successfully.”
Tieu and his co-founders, four-year business management students Ryan Seto and Samuel Lai, have a strong interest in data analytics but weren’t able to find any course offerings available at the undergraduate level. They decided to create that opportunity for undergraduate students so they have these skills to stay competitive in the job market.
“This new zone partner will expose our undergraduate students across the university to a potential career path in data analytics – an industry that is witnessing exponential growth but facing a severe shortage of skilled analysts,” said Osman Hamid, manager of student engagement and business development at TRSM.
Indeed, in a report (external link, opens in new window) released by the McKinsey Global Institute, a global management consulting firm, by 2018, the United States alone could face a shortage of 1.5 million of big-data analysts. Data mining and statistical analysis were also the top two skill-set categories that U.S. employers were looking for in 2015 according to LinkedIn (external link, opens in new window) , a global professional networking online site.
The goal of the school is to provide analytics training to all Ryerson undergraduates, entrepreneurs, and professionals interested in the emerging field of big data. Companies can also connect with the school to work with student data scientists to solve problems, providing them with critical hands-on experience.
ZLAS has already attracted partnerships with IBM and Big Data University, IBM’s in-house incubator, Statistical Analytics Software (external link, opens in new window) (SAS) as well as the Social Media Lab (external link, opens in new window) at TRSM. Since mid-January, the school has been offering free workshops every other week, in partnership with IBM and Big Data University, on data science and big data to students and professionals taught by some of the global technology firm’s top analytics instructors at the university’s Launch Zone. These workshops will run until the end of March.
IBM will also provide 15,000 complimentary licenses to Ryerson students and faculty to access the IBM Watson Analytics (external link, opens in new window) program. Through this partnership with IBM, the analytics software will help meet the increasing demand for highly-skilled data scientists in the workforce.
“No longer is data analysis a skill set required only for data scientists. As companies have evolved, so must those joining the workforce. There is an expectation at every level to understand the value that data holds and have the ability to analyze it for the purposes of driving business forward,” said Marc Altshuller, Vice President, Watson Analytics and Business Intelligence, IBM Analytics. “Watson Analytics provides the tools to teach the next generation workforce how to find the signals in the data – with an unbiased view of what that data should hold.”
In addition, the new zone partner will work with Ryerson’s zones to provide students and entrepreneurs access to analytics training. “Zone learning provides our students with flexible and timely opportunities to learn about the most important developments in innovation and entrepreneurship today,” said Randy Boyagoda, director of Ryerson’s Zone Learning. “The new Zone Learning Analytics School responds to student interest and societal needs in the area of big data and related emerging trends and opportunities.”
This new zone partner will build on Ryerson’s growing reputation in big data and data analytics. The university currently offers a graduate program (opens in new window) in data science and analytics as well as a certificate program (opens in new window) in data analytics, big data and predictive analytics through The Chang School of Continuing Education. It also houses the Privacy & Big Data Institute (opens in new window) headed by former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Dr. Ann Cavoukian and the Data Science Laboratory (opens in new window) . In 2014, Ryerson launched Canada’s Big Data Consortium (opens in new window) to bring industry, government and academia together to collaborate on key issues related to big data analytics. The university also partnered with OMERS Ventures and the Ontario Centres of Excellence to launch One Eleven (external link, opens in new window) , a technology accelerator for entrepreneurs building big data enterprises.
About Ted Rogers School of Management
Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University is Canada’s leading entrepreneurial-focused business school shaping the country’s next generation of global leaders. Home to six schools of management, two Ryerson MBA programs, a Masters of Science in Management program and 14 cutting-edge research centres, institutes & labs, the faculty’s focus on academic rigor, combined with real-world experience, provides students with experiential learning and critical thinking skills needed to solve challenges facing today’s global economy. ryerson.ca/tedrogersschool
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