The first World Data Science Forum by bitgrit brings together experts and students to explore the possibilities of data science.
In today’s highly-digitalised environment, the importance of data analytics can no longer be ignored anyone; be they individuals, businesses and institutions. As we continue to adopt innovative technology in our daily routines, we’re seeing unprecedented demand for data scientists to help make sense of today’s highly-complex datasets.
At bitgrit, we provide an online networking platform for data scientists across Asia, where they can connect and interact with each other as well as with external stakeholders chiefly through our regular hosting of localised events in various regions — the latest being the World Data Science Forum 2018.
Experts join forces to deliberate on the potential of data science
We capped off our busy first half of 2018 with the inaugural World Data Science Forum at the Indian finance and tech hub of Gurgaon, Haryana. Standing at the forefronts of academia and business, our speakers assembled at the Forum to discuss the positive implications and future challenges surrounding key technological developments such as: internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and the blockchain.
The ‘future’ unfolded as the forum’s central theme, which saw data science students from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and the University of Tokyo gathered to network with the speakers and guests to foster a greater understanding of their role in tomorrow’s data science ecosystem.
Gearing up for the future
Given our mission — to cultivate an Asia-based data scientist network with the capacity to solve tomorrow’s problems — we leverage the Forum as a key platform where industry newcomers could lean and gain expert insights into the industry.
We also provided the participating students a chance to engage in assignments to try to work out one of the data science industry’s most pressing problems: Twitter spam. The students were tasked to apply their data analytics skills to detect spam Tweets amongst a set of 10,000 anonymous Tweets.
The exercise resulted in an immensely insightful brainstorming event, with each student presenting their own intriguing propositions in response to the problem at hand to create manageable approaches via a variety of different methods.
With the display of ingenuity and creativity by these students, we’re on our way to ensure that the data science industry will have plenty of capable hands working to solve tomorrow’s challenges.
A springboard for future success
The World Data Science Forum 2018 has been a resounding success for us for two key reasons.
1. It was our first opportunity collaborating with veteran industry stakeholders from India and Japan (two countries which have been instrumental in driving innovation in IoT, AI and the blockchain in Asia) to share their expertise with a wider audience.
2. We helped budding data scientists become aware of their roles by way of first-hand insights gained via the Forum.
But there’s still much for us to do at bitgrit. The workings of the world’s businesses and institutions are only becoming more complex, meaning that data has become more integral than ever to unravel such intricacies.
As the demand for data scientists is fast outstripping the industry’s ability to supply it, we need to collaborate more closely with the ecosystem’s key players in Asia to find effective and sustainable solutions.
We do believe that the seeds sown are already beginning to grow. The next step is to ensure that upcoming talents are nurtured via the right academic channels and through increased engagements with industry experts.
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