(Dutch Data Science Summit 2014 – Eindhoven, 4 Dec. 2014)
It is already clear that Data Science, Big Data and Analytics are true game changers that will generate business worth of trillions of euros over the next decade. This paradigm is closely connected with other relative new concepts like Internet Of Things (IoT), Cloud, Social Media and Mobility.
The applications of Data Science are beyond imagination. Some of the examples are Decision Management, Customer Intelligence, Preventive Maintenance, Risk Modelling, Operations Optimization, Security and Fraud Detection and even Psychological and Social research.
Data Science is still young, though many elements of the practice are not completely new. Business Intelligence, Statistics and Visualizations have been around some time. Though there has not yet been defined a proper profile of the “Data Scientist”.
It is clear that a Data Scientist should be able to move over three skill axes: Data, Business Context, and Tools & Methods in order to generate usable intelligence. As this role is new and maybe not even well defined it will be hard to find sufficient experts to meet the demand, and for the next few years a considerable gap between supply and demand of skilled data scientists is expected.
Region Brainport - Eindhoven (Netherlands) has acknowledged this expected scarcity and has defined an ambitious plan: Data Science Center Eindhoven (DSC/e). Together with education, government and private companies like Philips and ASML it aims to bridge this gap the next few years, and to become the world leader in the Data Science field within 1000 days from now.
The program consists of a number of strategic research programs, like Process Analytics, Customer Journey, Smart Maintenance, Quantified Self, Data Value & Privacy, Smart Cities and Smart Grids.
A second focus is set to high end education to cover the entire skill set of Data Science on all levels (Bachelor, Master and PhD). A collaboration between the University of Technology of Eindhoven and the University of Tilburg has resulted in the Brainport International School of Data Science, which will get chairs in Eindhoven (Elected Smartest City of the world, 2011), Tilburg and Den Bosch.
Besides the DSC/e the Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven is setting up an ambitious curriculum for Big Data of their own. Though collaboration between DSC/e en Fontys might be is not unimaginable. If they will participate as well the odds are even better for Brainport to be the world leaders in Data Science, Big Data and Analytics soon!
