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For CIOs, Universities Can’t Train Data Scientists Fast Enough

November 11, 2014 /

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Chief information officers are struggling to find data scientists, those individuals with engineering and business skills, as well at the statistical savviness required to analyze and derive value from Big Data companies generate. Academic leaders are endeavoring to produce more data scientists by offering school programs that teach several disciplines, and encourage students to think more broadly about the technical and business levers they must pull to achieve desired outcomes.

But one data scientist asks why companies should bother. In time software, not people, will be better at generating the kind of analytics reports companies require.

The key to achieving the skillset is a cross-disciplinary approach, says Mr. Rappa. Students in NCSU’s Advanced Analytics program study applied math, statistics, computer science, finance and marketing — many of the requisite subjects to round out a data scientist — from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, for 10 months.

By
Clint Boulton

Full Story: http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/11/10/for-cios-universities-cant-train-data-scientists-fast-enough/