Teradata Assists in New Analytics Focus at Northwestern University

'Big data' phenomenon driving student enrollment in analytics to meet urgent need of businesses everywhere for more analytics professionals

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Teradata Corporation

Dec 14, 2011, 10:41 ET

CHICAGO and DAYTON, Ohio, Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Teradata (NYSE: TDC), the world's leading analytic data solutions company focused on Integrated Data Warehousing,  Big Data Analytics, and Business Applications, today announced its collaboration with Northwestern University on new business and technology curricula to help students learn the science and practice of business analytics – including data warehousing techniques and platforms which are fundamental to the field of analytics. The new course of study is one of the first of its kind and will prepare students to meet the dramatic explosion in global demand for practitioners in data analytics.

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The professor leading the charge for the analytics program is Diego Klabjan, associate professor of industrial engineering and management sciences and director of the Master of Science in Analytics at Northwestern. He said that the program will be sure to include significant content on the big data aspect of analytics.

"A large portion of the new analytics program curriculum is going to cover big data and unstructured data," said Dr. Klabjan. "The leadership expertise and vision of Teradata in the practice of big data analytics is exactly the kind of content we'll use as we build an elite program for the very best students pursuing this field of study."

He said that the new program is a Master of Science degree with an analytics concentration, and offered by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. Students will learn such analytic techniques as pattern recognition and predictive modeling – and the technologies that enable them. Klabjan also said the general business context will be part of the learning, so that students are equipped to connect the dots and apply analytics to solving real business problems.

The exploding demand for analytics professionals has exceeded all expectations, and is driven by the dramatic tidal wave of 'big data'. Big data is a term commonly applied to large data sets where volume, variety, velocity, or complexity are beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to efficiently capture, manage, and process. Examples include Web logs, sensor networks, social media, medical records and more.

"Businesses everywhere are feeling the impact of the big data revolution and specific types of multi-structured data are driving new business opportunities," said Randy Lea, vice president, Teradata's Aster Center of Innovation. "To get value from big data, 'quants' or data scientists are becoming analytic innovators who create tremendous business value within an organization, quickly exploring and uncovering game-changing insights from vast volumes of data, as opposed to merely accessing transactional data for operational reporting."

According to Teradata, companies should act quickly to gain the business advantages created by the emerging class of analytics professionals, data scientists. Their skills can be described as a mix of technical and analytical, combined with the acumen of business entrepreneurs.

"We're getting lots of interest from the market about how companies can extend their data warehouses from the enterprise data they now have – into the new world of multi-structured data from new sources to get a better understanding of the business," said Scott Gnau, President of Teradata Labs. "Industry is demanding more value from their big data, and the keys to driving this value include great technology and great data scientists.  We are thrilled to support this new program as a way to help add to the supply of new data scientists."

Even as the growth of big data is skyrocketing, universities worldwide are struggling, and too frequently failing, to adequately prepare students to meet the demand for employees skilled in business intelligence, or BI. This is the finding of a recent international survey sponsored by Business Intelligence Congress II, a meeting of business intelligence professors and industry professionals co-hosted by Teradata University Network and the Special Interest Group on Decision Support, Knowledge and Data Management Systems.

The need for highly skilled BI workers by 2018 in the US alone is projected to exceed available workforce by as much as 60 percent, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report in May. That report projects that by 2018 an additional 190,000 "deep analytical talent" workers plus 1.5 million more "data-savvy managers and analysts" will be needed to take full advantage of big data in the US alone(1).

To accommodate escalating data volumes and end users, companies are pursuing heightened technology capabilities that cut through data complexity, extend the scope of their BI, and speed delivery of new types of useful information to growing communities of business users. Through ongoing integration and optimization of Teradata platform family technologies, leading companies are working with Teradata to meet the demands for insight from big data.

Relevant News Links

(1) McKinsey Global Institute, "Big Data: The next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity," May 2011.

About Teradata
Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC) is the world's leading analytic data solutions company focused on integrated data warehousing, big data analytics, and business applications. Teradata's innovative products and services deliver integration and insight to empower organizations to achieve competitive advantage.  Visit teradata.com for details.

Teradata is a trademark or registered trademark of Teradata Corporation in the United States and other countries.

SOURCE Teradata Corporation

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